National shutdown
Internet Services
According to a report by global Internet watchdog Netblocks, Mauritania went into a near-complete Internet blackout following contested presidential elections held on Saturday, 25th June. A real-time network measurement by Netblocks showed that the country had been disconnected with widespread mobile and fixed-line Internet disruptions amidst the election controversy.
- Total Duration 9 days
Mauritania
- Population
- 5,169,395
- UN Classification
-
- Least Developed Country
Local impact
According to a report by global Internet watchdog Netblocks, Mauritania went into a near-complete Internet blackout following contested presidential elections held on Saturday, 25th June. A real-time network measurement by Netblocks showed that the country had been disconnected with widespread mobile and fixed-line Internet disruptions amidst the election controversy.
Related documentation
What's happening in #Mauritania is unbelievable. It's clear the candidate supported by the current president is losing the elections. As I am writing this tweet army units have been deployed in Nouakchott, internet connection interrupted. — Abdoulaye Sow (@Papissow) June 23, 2019
Other supporting information
Following a contested presidential election in Mauritania, an Internet shutdown was put into place at approximately 15:30 GMT on June 25 as seen in the CAIDA IODA figure below – a significant drop in routed network prefixes occurred for several hours, while Active Probing and Darknet traffic sources dropped significantly.
Network diversity within the country is extremely limited. Looking at the figure for AS29544 (Mauritanian Telecommunication Company) below, it is clear that the routing instability in the country-level graph is related to this network’s routes essentially being removed from the Internet for that multi-hour period. Internet connectivity began to return across the country on July 3.
