That’s why you might have noticed a swathe of blue profile pictures dotting your feeds in the last week. Social media users are switching out their selfies for plain navy blue cards as part of the #BlueForSudan campaign, started after news began to filter out about a brutal military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that left over 100 dead.

Sudan – in the north east of Africa – has seen six months of protests that resulted in dictator Omar al-Bashir being deposed in a coup d’etat. After his removal, a military junta took charge but activists continued to campaign for civilian rule over an interim government.

On 3 June this ended in tragedy when a bloody crackdown by paramilitary forces in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital resulted in dozens of dead, including 26-year-old engineer Mohamed Mater.

Sudan news: This is why everyone has a blue profile picture on social media right now