Equatorial Guinea has kept internet access to the remote island of Annobón cut off for about a year after island residents sent a complaint to the central government over dynamite explosions and other activities by a Moroccan construction company, residents and rights groups said.
Dozens of residents who signed the July complaint were arrested and imprisoned for nearly a year, sources said, and the internet blackout has left the island’s roughly 5,000 inhabitants largely cut off from banking, medical coordination and everyday communications. Residents interviewed by The Associated Press described a community pushed into isolation, with heavy phone monitoring, soaring cellphone bills and a halt to emergency hospital services.
Local activists and exile residents described the shutdown as a deliberate government tactic to suppress dissent. "The current situation is extremely serious and worrying," one signatory, who asked to remain anonymous after spending 11 months behind bars, said. Macus Menejolea Taxijad, a resident now living in exile, said phone calls on the island were "heavily monitored, and speaking freely can pose a risk."
The Moroccan firm Somagec, which built an airport on Annobón in 2013 and has expanded projects across West and Central Africa, confirmed an outage but denied involvement in ordering it. Company CEO Roger Sahyoun said Somagec had been forced to rely on a private satellite, defended the use of dynamite as necessary for construction and said environmental and geotechnical studies had been carried out. The Associated Press said it could not independently verify a connection between the company and the shutdown.
How the blackout is being enforced has not been publicly detailed by Equatorial Guinea’s government, but when state authorities order internet restrictions they commonly instruct telecom operators to sever connections to specified locations or services. Residents and activists said even Somagec’s private satellite access has not restored communications for islanders.
The shutdown coincides with renewed international scrutiny of Equatorial Guinea’s leadership. The country is ruled by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Africa’s longest-serving head of state, who has been in power for more than four decades. His son, the vice president, has faced allegations of extravagant spending from state funds, a French conviction for money laundering and embezzlement, and sanctions from the United Kingdom. The AP report noted the internet cutoff persisted "at a moment when the Trump administration has considered loosening corruption sanctions on the country’s vice president."
Equatorial Guinea is oil- and gas-rich but deeply unequal. The World Bank estimates about 57% of the nation’s nearly 2 million people live in poverty while officials and their networks maintain high levels of wealth and luxury. Annobón, located in the Atlantic about 315 miles (507 kilometers) from the mainland, is one of the country’s poorest and most isolated provinces and has long complained of neglect by the central government.
Activists say the island’s geological makeup and potential mineral resources have drawn outside interest and positioned Annobón as strategically and economically important in the Gulf of Guinea. Residents and local campaigners allege that Somagec’s quarrying and blasting have polluted croplands and water supplies and worsened living conditions. Some islanders have for years sought greater autonomy or independence, saying Malabo has ignored local needs for schools, hospitals and infrastructure.
"Their marginalization is not only from a political perspective, but from a cultural, societal and economic perspective," said Mercè Monje Cano of the Unrepresented Peoples and Nations Organization, noting a pattern of arrests and repression directed at Annobón.
Human rights groups have raised concerns about broader surveillance and repression in Equatorial Guinea. A 2024 Amnesty International report cited mass surveillance and other measures used to suppress dissent. Internet shutdowns have become a common response by governments in Africa and elsewhere to protests and public criticism, according to digital rights organizations; advocates argue cutting communications prevents mobilization and independent reporting.
Tutu Alicante, founder of the human rights group EG Justice and originally from Annobón, said the shutdown marked a new level of repression because it followed a local community complaint rather than a national election. "This is the first time the government cut off the internet because a community has a complaint," he said.
The Equatorial Guinea government did not respond to inquiries for comment about the arrests, the island’s conditions or the status of internet services. Somagec said its work on the island continues and that the blasting was part of necessary construction operations.
The blackout’s effects have been immediate and practical. Residents described an inability to process bank transactions, communicate with relatives abroad affordably, arrange medical evacuations and access news or legal information. Some people have left the island, citing fears for their safety and the difficulty of life without reliable communications. Others remain, coping with restricted services and ongoing monitoring.
International rights groups and digital freedom advocates say transparency about how and why shutdowns are ordered is critical to accountability. For now, Annobón remains largely disconnected, an isolated pocket of a country whose wealth contrasts sharply with the deprivation reported on its most remote shores.