Global internet access campaigners NetBlocks report that the internet has been restored in Gabon.

The campaigners reported that it was blocked from 06:00 to 10:00 local time (05:00 to 09:00 GMT).

Internet Intelligence, the internet research arm of technology company Oracle, note that intenet blackouts are a familiar thing in Gabon.

They say around the 2016 presidential election the internet was blocked every night for 23 nights.

It is not clear who ordered telecoms companies to shut down the internet.

But Netblocks adds that sometimes the order may not come from the incumbent government:

Internet shutdowns have been recorded during coup attempts around the world as part of wider media blackouts typically understood to be ordered by the forces seeking power, such as the failed July 2016 power bid in Turkey where a partial internet disruption lasted several hours before order was re-established by the incumbent government."