const blockSpecifiedCountryCodes = (req: express.Request, res: express.Response, next: express.NextFunction) => {
  const ip = req.ip;
  const geo = geoip.lookup(ip);

  const countryCodeWhitelist = config.countryCodeWhitelist || ''; // default to an empty string if undefined
  const countryCodeWhitelistArray = countryCodeWhitelist.split('/');
  const allowedCountries = countryCodeWhitelistArray.length > 1 ? countryCodeWhitelistArray : [countryCodeWhitelist];

  const countryCodeBlacklist = config.countryCodeBlacklist || ''; // default to an empty string if undefined
  const countryCodeBlacklistArray = countryCodeBlacklist.split('/');
  const blockedCountries = countryCodeBlacklistArray.length > 1 ? countryCodeBlacklistArray : [countryCodeBlacklist];

  if (config.countryCodeBlockMode.toString() !== "none") {
    if (config.countryCodeBlockMode.toString() === "whitelist" && countryCodeWhitelist.length !== 0 && geo && !allowedCountries.includes(geo.country)) {
      logger.warn(`Blocked request from IP attached to a non-whitelisted country: ${ip}`);
      res.status(403).send(ACCESS_DENIED_HTML);
    } else if (config.countryCodeBlockMode.toString() === "blacklist" && countryCodeBlacklist.length !== 0 && geo && blockedCountries.includes(geo.country)) {
      logger.warn(`Blocked request from IP attached to a blacklisted country: ${ip}`);
      res.status(403).send(ACCESS_DENIED_HTML);
    } else {
      next();
    }
  }
}