Sudan shut down the internet to stop students from cheating during exams?

This is one of the strangest things I have seen in a very long time, and I am saying this as a Zimbabwean who is accustomed to the weird and wonderful that is thrown our way regularly. According to Cloudflare Sudan shut down its internet, over the weekend, to spot students from cheating during exams.

“As expected, a nationwide #Internet shutdown was observed in #Sudan this morning between 0530-0830 UTC (0730-1030 local time), intended to prevent cheating on secondary school exams. Daily shutdowns are scheduled through June 22.

Daily shutdowns are scheduled through June 22.

Cloudflare on Twitter

I don’t about you, but I am more accustomed to internet shutdowns on the continent happening because of elections, protests or, in the odd case of Nigeria, Twitter being blocked in the country because the President was slapped with contravening the platform’s community guidelines.

However, closing down a communication channel used by the entire nation to stop students from cheating, is just out of this world. I had to check the calendar to make sure that it wasn’t April the first. My knee jer reaction to this was why not just make invigilation more robust than going straight to shutting down the internet for the entire country.

What makes matters worse is according to Cloudflare there are internet shutdowns scheduled this month until the 22nd of June in Sudan.

I am completely lost on this one and would very much like to hear your thoughts in the comments.

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• Not Yet Uhuru: The Bigger Legal Issue On Internet Shut Down Has Not Been Addressed Yet
• eSwatini govt rumoured to have shut down the internet amid protests
• Uganda govt orders total internet shutdown