1432
Welp that answers a lot of why all .ml are down
(i.imgur.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
It's a little stronger than that. The country gets the final say on where the root zones point to when it comes to their assigned country code. Many countries employ private organizations to handle their TLD. They aren't supposed to be paid for that though. (But it 1000% happens under the table)