Internet Shutdowns

We are monitoring what appears to be a shutdown of Internet connectivity in Chad after civil unrest. This page will be updated frequently while we assess the situation. Media reports indicate there were attacks on the offices of the Chad intelligence service in the capital city of N'Djamena that caused several deaths. Reports indicate that the government is accusing the opposition party "Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF)". Other reports indicate the PSF is accusing the government of involvement. There appears to be a significant amount of confusion about exactly what is happening in N'Djamena. The lack of Internet connectivity into the area has limited communication.

Internet services in Chad were disrupted in what seems to be a knock on effect caused by disruptions in Sudan as the deadly conflict there escalates. The outage was caused by the breakdown of infrastructure linking Chad with Sudan and Cameroon.  

The government of Chad again restricted Chadians' access to social media platforms throughout July and August 2020, in an attempt to control the spread of what it called 'messages inciting hate'. Access to the wider Internet was also throttled (slowed down) or completely blocked across the country intermittently. Chad has the 10th lowest Internet resilience ranking on the Internet Society Internet Resilience Index (IRI) for Africa and around 8% of the population of around 17 million people have access to the Internet. The vast majority of Chadians use mobile Internet and individuals with fixed line connectivity stands at 0%. While insufficient infrastructure, low bandwidth, low internet penetration rate and the prohibitively high cost of reliable connectivity hamper online services, entrepreneurs and businesses are slowly building the digital economy. During the shutdown, those offering online services that relied on messaging apps either stopped trading or had to resort to costly VPNs to circumvent the block, which resulted in them losing their livelihood or reducing their profit.

In one of the longest-running Internet disruptions of the last few years, messaging apps in Chad were blocked for 16 months. The social media blackout began in March 2018 after proposed government reforms to the constitution which would enable the current president to stay in power for the next 30 years. The President of Chad, Idriss Deby, ordered the shutdown 'for security reasons'. The media speculated that the blackout was an attempt to silence discontent among Chadians. Chad has the 10th lowest Internet resilience ranking on the Internet Society Internet Resilience Index (IRI) for Africa and around 8% of the population of around 17 million people have access to the Internet. The vast majority of Chadians use mobile Internet and individuals with fixed line connectivity stands at 0%. While insufficient infrastructure, low bandwidth, low internet penetration rate and the prohibitively high cost of reliable connectivity hamper online services, entrepreneurs and businesses are slowly building the digital economy. During the shutdown, those offering online services that relied on messaging apps either stopped trading or had to resort to costly VPNs to circumvent the block, which resulted in them losing their livelihood or reducing their profit. In the 16 months the ban was upheld, the country's economy lost out on an estimated $100 million.