Sudan’s Minister of Information Ahmed Bilal has admitted that attempts by the Sudanese government to prevent broadcasts by the independent Radio Dabanga have failed.

Bilal was facing harsh criticism in the Council of States on Tuesday from members including Abdul Jabbar Abdul Karim, who accused the state media services of failing to compete with the station.

Radio Dabanga broadcasts to Sudan from neighbouring countries via shortwave. Censors have tried repeatedly to jam the signal, to little avail. The station also broadcasts on the popular ArabSat satellite service.

The minister said that the Sudanese government needs “to create a number of radio stations to attract listeners and compete with Radio Dabanga, which incites the people.”

In May, a report to the Sudanese parliament acknowledged that that the majority of the people in Darfur and Kordofan prefer Radio Dabanga to any state-run broadcaster.

MP Abdallah Ali Masar, former Media Minister, and currently chairman of the Transport Committee, commented that his wife listens to Radio Dabanga “day and night. Every day, when I come home, I find her listening to Radio Dabanga.”

File photo: A WFP truck driver listens to the radio after waking up in the morning at a UNAMID base in North Darfur (Albert Gonzalez Farran/Unamid)