NEWFOUND NEWS: KAZAKHSTAN INTERNET SHUTDOWN MUCH WORSE THAN EXPECTED

A state-imposed internet shutdown in Kazakhstan entered a sixth day on Monday, leaving millions of people struggling to access basic services and information about anti-government protests that have rocked the country, digital rights groups said.

Connectivity was restored nationwide for a few hours on Monday, according to Internet blockage observatory NetBlocks, before being cut off soon after in the Central Asian nation following last week’s wave of unrest.

“Earlier today, some users briefly came online for the first time in five days,” the group said on Twitter.

The streets of Kazakhstan’s biggest city Almaty returned to near-normal on Monday after the worst violence in three decades of post-Soviet independence, with thousands of people detained and some public buildings torched.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said his country had weathered an attempted coup d’etat.

Authorities cut off access to the internet completely on Wednesday last week, NetBlocks said, as protests against a New Year’s Day fuel price hike spread into nationwide demonstrations against the government and ex-leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, 81.

Aisha, a resident of the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan who asked not to give her real name, said she was working at her office when the shutdown took effect, leaving her with no source of news about developments in the country.