# Ladder: shutdowns and blocking, in Africa

A government cuts internet or mobile telephone service, blocks news websites or social media platforms, or jams radio and television signals, so that audiences cannot receive news and reporters cannot send it out.

The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.

Narrow with ?stage= (restrict, pressure, punish, silence, eliminate), ?continent=, ?from= and ?to= (year or date).

## Silence

Removing outlets or channels from the public sphere: closures, licence withdrawals, forced sales, blocking and shutdowns, prior restraint, nationalisation.

| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2 November 1985 | [South Africa](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/za) ([RSF 2026 rank: 21st of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [P. W. Botha](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/p-w-botha) | Under a state of emergency State President P. W. Botha had declared in July 1985, the government banned television, radio and photographic coverage of unrest in South Africa's Black townships on November 2, 1985, requiring print journalists to report only under police escort. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1985-south-africa-state-of-emergency-media-ban) | Reversed (1 June 1990) | 1 |
| November 2020 | [Ethiopia](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/et) ([RSF 2026 rank: 148th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Abiy Ahmed](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/abiy-ahmed) | 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. 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. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-ethiopia-tigray-internet-blackout) | Ongoing (3 May 2021) | 3 |
| 29 October 2025 | [Tanzania](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/tz) ([RSF 2026 rank: 117th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Samia Suluhu Hassan](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/samia-suluhu-hassan) | Tanzania's government restricted internet and social-media access on October 29, 2025, as citizens voted in a general election marked by protests, cutting national internet traffic by nearly 90 percent and leaving both local and foreign journalists unable to report on the vote and its aftermath in… [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-tanzania-internet-shutdown-election-day) | Unknown | 2 |

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