Sudan News Agency (SUNA)

Sudan News Agency (SUNA) is Sudan’s official state news agency. SUNA’s own institutional history states that the decision to establish the agency was made on 1 January 1970 during a speech by President Jaafar Nimeiri in El Obeid, that it was officially inaugurated in 1971 on the second anniversary of the May Revolution, and that its first bulletin was issued on 21 September 1970 in Arabic and English. Today, SUNA operates as the news agency of the internationally recognised SAF-aligned Sudanese government and publishes through Arabic, English, and French web interfaces. The agency is a member of the UNA-OIC (Federation of News Agencies of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation), which lists SUNA as Sudan’s official news agency providing political, economic, cultural, sports, and science news to local and international media. In the State Media Monitor typology, SUNA continues to be classified as State-Controlled (SC): its output functions as official government communication, it operates within Sudan’s executive information system, and operates without an autonomous board, independent appointment framework, or enforceable editorial-independence safeguards.

Methodological note on jurisdiction

Since 15 April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a devastating civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (President of the Transitional Sovereignty Council) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group under Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo “Hemedti.” The conflict has produced two competing claims to state authority: the internationally recognised Transitional Sovereignty Council government, initially relocated to Port Sudan in April 2023 and returned to Khartoum on 11 January 2026 after SAF battlefield gains in 2025 including the recapture of the Republican Palace in March 2025 and the restoration of army control over much of the capital; and the RSF-aligned Sudan Founding Alliance/TASIS rival administration, which announced a parallel government on 26 July 2025, naming Mohamed Hassan al-Taishi as Prime Minister in Nyala (Darfur). The African Union Peace and Security Council reiterated on 29 July 2025 its recognition only of the Transitional Sovereignty Council and the transitional civilian government, rejecting recognition of the “so-called parallel government.” SUNA operates from SAF-aligned territory and reports on behalf of the internationally recognised government; it does not produce content for the RSF parallel administration.

Media assets

News agency: SUNA

Ownership and governance

SUNA operates within Sudan’s executive information system, with the Ministry of Culture and Information functioning as the supervising authority. SUNA’s own institutional materials describe the agency as an “independent professional press institution,” although the agency operates without an autonomous board, an independent appointment process, or statutory safeguards comparable to a public-service model.

The Director General of SUNA is Ibrahim Musa, identified as such in the agency’s own 3 May 2026 World Press Freedom Day coverage on suna-sd.net.

The supervisory ministry has also seen significant changes during the war. The Ministry of Culture and Information has been led by Khaled Ali Al-Aiser, a Sudanese journalist and former presenter at Al-Sharqiyya, previously a news editor for the London-based newspaper Al Zaman, since November 2024, when he was appointed by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, succeeding Graham Abdel Qader. Al-Aiser has been a visible spokesperson for the SAF-aligned government, including his 21 March 2025 confirmation on X of the SAF’s recapture of Khartoum’s Republican Palace.

The internationally recognised government has been led by Prime Minister Kamil Idris, who was named by the Transitional Sovereignty Council on 19 May 2025 and sworn in on 31 May 2025. On 11 January 2026, Idris announced from Khartoum that the government had returned to the capital after a nearly three-year relocation to Port Sudan, describing the move as “final and comprehensive” while acknowledging that the Presidential Palace and several ministry buildings remained too damaged for use. The 2026 cabinet has prioritised reconstruction and humanitarian recovery, with parallel diplomatic efforts to lift Sudan’s African Union suspension.

Source of funding and budget

According to African media experts consulted in March 2024 by the existing State Media Monitor team, SUNA is entirely financed through state subsidies provided by the central government. The agency does not publish financial reports or disclose its expenditures, and there is no transparency regarding how public funds are allocated or spent. Updated 2024–26 SUNA budget figures have not been made public, in line with the agency’s long-standing pattern of non-disclosure.

The civil war has dramatically constrained Sudan’s broader public finances, with PM Kamil Idris in his 11 January 2026 Khartoum statement forecasting that inflation would fall to 70 percent in 2026 while GDP would expand by 10 percent, though the funding implications for SUNA specifically have not been publicly disclosed.

Reports from media-development watchdogs including Dabanga Sudan confirm that SUNA’s Khartoum offices were among dozens of media institutions ransacked or destroyed in the ongoing civil war, forcing the agency to relocate and operate with minimal equipment. SAF battlefield gains in 2025, including the recapture of the Republican Palace in March 2025, and the government’s 11 January 2026 return to Khartoum have created the conditions for partial restoration of state-media infrastructure, although SUNA has not publicly disclosed the extent to which its pre-war Khartoum capacity has been rebuilt.

Editorial independence

SUNA functions as a government mouthpiece, with its editorial content fully aligned with state policies and interests. Its reporting consistently promotes the official Transitional Sovereignty Council line, including military-operations updates, framings of RSF actions as “rebel” attacks, calls for national unity, and refutations of RSF-claimed victories, while systematically excluding dissenting voices, critical analysis, or opposition viewpoints. There is no domestic legislation guaranteeing editorial independence, nor is there any independent regulatory body tasked with assessing SUNA’s performance or ensuring accountability. In the absence of such safeguards, SUNA operates as a tool of state communication rather than an impartial news service.

The 2023–2026 civil-war environment has produced one of the most catastrophic press-freedom landscapes in the world. Reporters Without Borders ranked Sudan 161st of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index, a drop of 5 places from 156/180 in 2025. RSF identified “recurring armed conflict” as the primary reason for Sudan’s continued decline, placing it alongside Iraq (162nd) and Yemen (164th) in the most catastrophic press-freedom category. Press-freedom monitors and Sudanese journalist organisations report a catastrophic environment with significantly higher cumulative tolls than international monitors: Ayin Network and Sudan Tribune reporting on World Press Freedom Day 2026 cited the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate’s finding that 34 journalists had been killed and 680 violations documented since the war began on 15 April 2023. CPJ reported at least seven journalists missing in Sudan as of mid-April 2026, with most killings attributed to RSF forces including a rising pattern of drone strikes that has killed at least five journalists per CPJ.

The press-freedom landscape in both warring jurisdictions remains hostile. In RSF-controlled areas, enforced disappearances have emerged as one of the most alarming trends. Among the cases CPJ has documented: Adam Issac Minan, a reporter for North Darfur State Radio and Television Corporation, who was kidnapped by RSF on 5 April 2026 in Kutum, North Darfur, and transferred to El Fasher (with concerns that he may have been moved to Dagreis prison in Nyala, South Darfur); and three female journalists from Nyala State Radio (Mawaheb Ibrahim, Zahraa Muhammad Al-Hassan, and Ishraqah Abdulrahman) who have not been heard from since being detained by RSF on 28 February 2026 in South Darfur and transferred to Korea Camp. In SAF-controlled areas, journalists Hajar Sulaiman and Miyahelnil Elmubarak were briefly detained in March 2026 in connection with reporting on corruption within prosecutorial offices and on middle-school exams respectively. On 8 April 2026, the Ministry of Culture, Information, Antiquities and Tourism suspended independent news platform Sudania 24 and withdrew its licences for alleged legal violations; subsequently, Radio Dabanga reported that media organisations were given until 1 June 2026 to regularise legal status and secure official permits or face legal penalties, a move that Sudanese media organisations and press-freedom monitors warned could further shrink the space for independent reporting. These constraints affect Sudan’s wider independent media environment; SUNA itself, as a Ministry of Culture and Information arm, is not subject to them.

AI and digital policy

SUNA maintains digital and social-media distribution channels including suna-sd.net, suna-news.net, and X account @SUNA_AGENCY_EN. SUNA has not adopted any public policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content provenance frameworks such as C2PA.

May 2026