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A Nigerian non-governmental organisation has written to President Muhammadu Buhari urging him to suspend a total communications blackout that was imposed in the northwestern state of Zamfara and neighbouring Katsina. Authorities have shut down telephone networks and the internet as part of an offensive against violent bandits and kidnapping gangs in the region, cutting off their ability to make contact. But Kolawole Oluwadare, deputy director of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) says the move has no justification in law, and it means that local people can't make even basic calls, for example to emergency services or hospitals. Image: Generic photo of a couple on their mobile phones. Credit: Getty.