Equatorial Guinea has cut internet access to Annobón island since last year, when residents complained about a construction company’s dynamite blasting.

Dozens of complaint signatories were imprisoned for nearly a year, while banking and healthcare services collapsed without internet connectivity.

The shutdown represents the latest repressive tactic by Africa’s longest-serving president against the independence-seeking island of 5,000 residents.

LAGOS, Nigeria — When residents of Equatorial Guinea’s Annobón island wrote to the government in Malabo in July of last year complaining about the dynamite explosions by a Moroccan construction company, they didn’t expect the swift end to their internet access.

Dozens of the signatories and residents were imprisoned for nearly a year, while i

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