Sudan revokes licence of Al Jazeera's live TV unit

Khartoum

Sudan has revoked the licence of Al Jazeera Mubasher, part of the Qatar-based network, accusing it of "unprofessional" TV coverage of anti-coup protests, the channel said Sunday.

"The Sudanese authorities announce they revoked the accreditation of Al Jazeera Mubasher and barred its team from working in Sudan," tweeted the news channel.

Sudan has been gripped by political turmoil since top military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan launched a coup on October 25.

The military power grab triggered mass protests by pro-democracy movements demanding civilian rule that has met with a deadly crackdown.

Protesters killed

At least 64 protesters have been killed, according to pro-democracy medics, and a police officer has also lost his life.

Al Jazeera has given prominent coverage to the demonstrations and late last year also aired an interview with Burhan.

In November, days after the interview, it said that its Khartoum bureau chief Al-Musalami al-Kabbashi had been arrested at his home.

Kabbashi was released three days later with no official charges announced against him.

The editor-in-chief of the armed forces newspaper Ibrahim al-Hory later accused Kabbashi of publishing "false" information and of airing "old video footage... that instigated strife" in the country.

Burhan declared a state of emergency on October 25, ousted the government and detained the civilian leadership.

Prime Minister Abdulla Hamdok was placed under house arrest but later reinstated in a deal with the military.

Hamdok then resigned on January 2 warning that Sudan was at a dangerous crossroads threatening its very "survival".

Burhan has insisted the military's move "was not a coup" but a push to "rectify the course of the transition".