{
  "id": 168,
  "slug": "2020-ethiopia-tigray-internet-blackout",
  "title": "Ethiopia: internet and phone service cut across Tigray",
  "occurred_on": "2020-11-04",
  "occurred_on_precision": "month",
  "ended_on": null,
  "jurisdiction": "ET",
  "country": "ET",
  "continent": "africa",
  "level": "state_or_province",
  "type": null,
  "tactic_primary": "shutdowns_and_blocking",
  "leader_slug": "abiy-ahmed",
  "issue_of_the_day": "Not stated in the sources reviewed.",
  "outcome": "ongoing",
  "outcome_on": "2021-05-03",
  "outcome_note": "As of the May 2021 source, service had been only partially restored in the regional capital and surrounding areas.",
  "granularity": "granular",
  "era": "2020s",
  "summary": "Ethiopia's government cut internet and telephone service across the Tigray region when war broke out there in November 2020, leaving the region without communication for months and forcing reporters to travel there to learn what was happening.{c:542}{c:648}{c:649}",
  "what_happened": "Fighting broke out in November 2020 between Ethiopia's federal government, led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and forces aligned with the Tigray region's ruling party. The government cut internet and telephone service to the region at the start of the conflict, leaving it largely unreachable from outside. A freelance journalist who traveled to the regional capital in March 2021 said connectivity remained shut off and that even where partial service had been restored, calls and texts worked in the capital and surrounding areas but not uniformly across the wider region. The blackout meant that reporters could not confirm events inside Tigray by phone or online and instead had to travel there directly, at a time when access to the region was also restricted by the military.{c:542}{c:648}{c:649}\n\nOngoing as of the source reviewed, published in May 2021.{c:542}{c:648}{c:649}",
  "stated_justification": "Not stated in the sources reviewed.{c:542}{c:648}{c:649}",
  "effect_on_reporting": "Journalists said the shutdown left them unable to confirm events inside Tigray without traveling there in person, since calls, texts and internet access from outside the region did not work.{c:542}",
  "unknowns": "The sources reviewed do not give a date on which service was fully restored across the region.",
  "status": "in_effect",
  "status_updated_on": "2026-09-22",
  "external_ids": {},
  "illustration_key": null,
  "pub_state": "published",
  "published_at": "2026-09-23T01:19:04Z",
  "reviewed_on": "2026-09-22",
  "next_review_on": "2026-12-22",
  "revision": 9,
  "created_at": "2026-09-23T01:18:59Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-09-23T02:21:51Z",
  "stage": "silence",
  "ladder_note": "Ethiopia cut internet and phone service to an entire region for months during a civil war, leaving reporters unable to confirm events without traveling there in person; no United States action in the record has cut off a region's communications.",
  "country_name": "Ethiopia",
  "tactics": [
    "shutdowns_and_blocking"
  ],
  "leader": {
    "slug": "abiy-ahmed",
    "name": "Abiy Ahmed",
    "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/abiy-ahmed"
  },
  "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-ethiopia-tigray-internet-blackout",
  "page_meta": {
    "published": "2026-09-23T01:19:04Z",
    "reviewed": "2026-09-22",
    "sources": 3,
    "status": "in_effect",
    "statusAsOf": "2026-09-22",
    "unknowns": "The sources reviewed do not give a date on which service was fully restored across the region."
  },
  "actors": [
    {
      "slug": "abiy-ahmed",
      "name": "Abiy Ahmed",
      "kind": "person",
      "role": "other",
      "role_at_time": null,
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/actors/abiy-ahmed"
    }
  ],
  "outlets": [],
  "journalists": [
    {
      "slug": "maya-misikir",
      "name": "Maya Misikir",
      "outlet": null,
      "relation": "affected",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/journalists/maya-misikir"
    }
  ],
  "cases": [],
  "related": [],
  "events": [],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": 542,
      "subject_type": "incident",
      "subject_id": 168,
      "field": "effect_on_reporting",
      "value": "Partial restoration uneven across the region",
      "statement": "Description of where service had and had not returned by March 2021.",
      "attribution": null,
      "source_id": 383,
      "evidence_quote": "By the time I went to cover my story in March 2021, partial communications had been restored; calls and texts were working in the regional capital and surrounding areas, but not uniformly across the region.",
      "evidence_date": "2021-05-03",
      "method": "outlet_report",
      "verified_at": "2026-09-22",
      "confidence": "medium",
      "status": "current",
      "supersedes_id": null,
      "superseded_by": null,
      "supersede_reason": null,
      "batch_label": "seed-2026-09-22",
      "created_at": "2026-09-23T01:19:02Z",
      "source": {
        "id": 383,
        "url": "https://cpj.org/2021/05/journalists-shutdowns-myanmar-ethiopia-kashmir/",
        "final_url": "https://cpj.org/2021/05/journalists-shutdowns-myanmar-ethiopia-kashmir/",
        "title": "Journalists struggle to work amid extended internet shutdowns in Myanmar, Ethiopia, Kashmir",
        "publisher": "Committee to Protect Journalists",
        "published_on": "2021-05-03",
        "link_state": "live",
        "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T12:00:00Z",
        "wayback_url": null,
        "wayback_saved_at": null
      },
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/claims/542"
    },
    {
      "id": 648,
      "subject_type": "incident",
      "subject_id": 168,
      "field": "action",
      "value": "Internet connectivity remains shut off",
      "statement": "Direct statement on the state of connectivity in Tigray.",
      "attribution": null,
      "source_id": 383,
      "evidence_quote": "Internet connectivity remains shut off.",
      "evidence_date": "2021-05-03",
      "method": "outlet_report",
      "verified_at": "2026-09-22",
      "confidence": "medium",
      "status": "current",
      "supersedes_id": null,
      "superseded_by": null,
      "supersede_reason": null,
      "batch_label": "seed-2026-09-22",
      "created_at": "2026-09-23T01:34:31Z",
      "source": {
        "id": 383,
        "url": "https://cpj.org/2021/05/journalists-shutdowns-myanmar-ethiopia-kashmir/",
        "final_url": "https://cpj.org/2021/05/journalists-shutdowns-myanmar-ethiopia-kashmir/",
        "title": "Journalists struggle to work amid extended internet shutdowns in Myanmar, Ethiopia, Kashmir",
        "publisher": "Committee to Protect Journalists",
        "published_on": "2021-05-03",
        "link_state": "live",
        "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T12:00:00Z",
        "wayback_url": null,
        "wayback_saved_at": null
      },
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/claims/648"
    },
    {
      "id": 649,
      "subject_type": "incident",
      "subject_id": 168,
      "field": "action",
      "value": "Shutdown documented alongside Myanmar and Kashmir",
      "statement": "CPJ grouping the Tigray blackout with two other extended shutdowns it tracked in the same period.",
      "attribution": null,
      "source_id": 383,
      "evidence_quote": "Journalists struggle to work amid extended internet shutdowns in Myanmar, Ethiopia, Kashmir",
      "evidence_date": "2021-05-03",
      "method": "outlet_report",
      "verified_at": "2026-09-22",
      "confidence": "medium",
      "status": "current",
      "supersedes_id": null,
      "superseded_by": null,
      "supersede_reason": null,
      "batch_label": "seed-2026-09-22",
      "created_at": "2026-09-23T01:34:32Z",
      "source": {
        "id": 383,
        "url": "https://cpj.org/2021/05/journalists-shutdowns-myanmar-ethiopia-kashmir/",
        "final_url": "https://cpj.org/2021/05/journalists-shutdowns-myanmar-ethiopia-kashmir/",
        "title": "Journalists struggle to work amid extended internet shutdowns in Myanmar, Ethiopia, Kashmir",
        "publisher": "Committee to Protect Journalists",
        "published_on": "2021-05-03",
        "link_state": "live",
        "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T12:00:00Z",
        "wayback_url": null,
        "wayback_saved_at": null
      },
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/claims/649"
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": 383,
      "url": "https://cpj.org/2021/05/journalists-shutdowns-myanmar-ethiopia-kashmir/",
      "final_url": "https://cpj.org/2021/05/journalists-shutdowns-myanmar-ethiopia-kashmir/",
      "title": "Journalists struggle to work amid extended internet shutdowns in Myanmar, Ethiopia, Kashmir",
      "publisher": "Committee to Protect Journalists",
      "published_on": "2021-05-03",
      "link_state": "live",
      "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T12:00:00Z",
      "wayback_url": null,
      "wayback_saved_at": null
    },
    {
      "id": 462,
      "url": "https://www.reuters.com/world/six-million-silenced-two-year-internet-outage-ethiopia--trfn-2022-09-29/",
      "final_url": "https://www.reuters.com/world/six-million-silenced-two-year-internet-outage-ethiopia--trfn-2022-09-29/",
      "title": "Six million silenced: A two-year internet outage in Ethiopia",
      "publisher": "Reuters",
      "published_on": "2022-09-29",
      "link_state": "paywalled",
      "link_state_since": "2026-09-23T02:35:35Z",
      "wayback_url": null,
      "wayback_saved_at": null
    },
    {
      "id": 463,
      "url": "https://apnews.com/article/technology-africa-internet-access-kenya-ethiopia-c4c9ba266cd166ba2aa43d1be6268a6a",
      "final_url": "https://apnews.com/article/technology-africa-internet-access-kenya-ethiopia-c4c9ba266cd166ba2aa43d1be6268a6a",
      "title": "Ethiopia offers no date for end to blackout in Tigray region",
      "publisher": "Associated Press",
      "published_on": "2021",
      "link_state": "bot_blocked",
      "link_state_since": "2026-09-23T02:35:35Z",
      "wayback_url": null,
      "wayback_saved_at": null
    }
  ],
  "revisions_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-ethiopia-tigray-internet-blackout/revisions",
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  },
  "cite_as": "Ethiopia: internet and phone service cut across Tigray. The War On News, thewaronnews.com. https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-ethiopia-tigray-internet-blackout. Retrieved 2026-09-23."
}