Cyber activists have hacked 73 official government websites in Sudan, including the president’s, as they continue to demand LGBT people in Africa are given rights.

Sudan has one of the most severe laws regarding homosexuality. The judicial system is based on Shari’a law and according to Article 148, capital punishment applies should the offense be committed either by a man or a woman.

For gay men, lashes are given for the first offence, with the death penalty following the third offence.

And 100 lashes are given to unmarried women who engage in homosexual acts. For lesbian women, stoning and thousands of lashes are the penalty for the first offence.

The focus on Sudan comes as two hacktivist groups, Anonymous and TheEliteSociety, have launched a joint all-out attack against countries in Africa that kill or imprison LGBT people. They call the operation #OpFuckAfrica.

So far websites in Botswana, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda have been taken down or their databases have been leaked.

Anonymous is a loosely associated group of ‘hacktivists’ which originated in 2003, which strongly opposes any form of oppression and censorship, and has been recently started to target governments which have anti-LGBT polices. Some of its members sometimes appear in public wearing Guy Fawkes masks.

In this operation Anonymous hacktivists are targeting governmental and national websites.

TheEliteSociety founded by a hacktivist known as @Dramasett3r is a ‘gray hat’ hacktivist group, which may technically commit crimes during the course of their technological exploits but without malicious intent or for personal gain. The group also opposes any form of oppression and censorship.

An Anonymous hacktivist told GayStarNews: ‘Not all of what we do is public, and not all of what we find is used against a site/agency.

‘Just today we fixed some vulnerability in a major African relief agency which could have otherwise have been used to set up mail spam/illegal file sharing/child porn and many other things.

‘We help Children’s Variety Club in the UK and many others, all voluntarily and free of charge.

‘We also do things like set up Tor bridges and relays for activists and general users in places like Syria and Iran.’ (Tor enables users to stay anonymous online.)

This sort of hacktivism is termed ‘white hat’ and includes ethical hackers testing to ensure the security of an organization’s information systems, an activity Anonymous stresses they also engage in.

Hacktivists involved in operation #OpFuckAfrica stated previously they will only attack national government websites in countries that actively seek to imprison or kill LGBT people.

Read the full story of the hack operation published by GSN earlier today here.