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Africa saw more internet shutdowns in 2024 than ever before as autocratic leaders looked to disempower grassroots movements amid contentious elections.
Internet rights group Access Now has issued a report showing how authorities imposed at least 296 internet shutdowns in 54 countries, causing chaos across borders and exacerbating trauma during conflict.
The findings reveal that 21 shutdowns impacted 15 countries in Africa – the highest number of shutdowns ever recorded in a single year for the region. For the second year in a row, authorities and warring parties used internet shutdowns as a weapon of war and a tool for collective punishment. Access Now also said they were sometimes used to conceal human rights abuses.
The countries identified that were most affected included: Burundi, Chad, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.
Comoros, Guinea-Bissau and Mauritius shut down the internet for the first time in 2024, while hacker group Anonymous Sudan claimed responsibility for cyber attacks that disconnected people in Chad.
Protests were found to be the leading trigger for shutdowns in 2024, with authorities in nine countries imposing 12 shutdowns during protests and political instability. This was followed by shutdowns to control information and election-related shutdowns.
Meanwhile, Ethiopians living in the Tigray and Amhara areas continued to suffer from the effects of shutdowns beginning in 2020 and 2023 respectively, despite promises from the government to restore internet services.
Uganda continued to block access to Facebook for the fourth year in a row. Authorities in Kenya blocked Telegram during national exams for the second year in a row, and shut down the internet amid protests that also impacted connectivity in Burundi and Rwanda.
In Mozambique, authorities imposed curfew-style shutdowns and platform blockings following protests, while in Equatorial Guinea, authorities imposed a shutdown in July 2024 in Annobón that continues to persist.
Bridget Andere, senior policy analyst at Access Now, said: “The right to freedom of expression, access to information and peaceful assembly are at risk now more than ever. As a civil society, we will continue to hold authorities to account and raise the alarm on human rights abuses that fester in the darkness of internet shutdowns.”
In 2022, India was identified as the biggest offender of internet shutdowns by the campaign group. The Indian government implemented at least 84 shutdowns in that year, which was the highest number for the fifth year running at the time.
