Senegal: Authorities cut internet access as protests over election delay continue
Mobile internet access in Senegal was suspended on Tuesday for the second time this month, the communications ministry said, after authorities banned a march against the delay to February’s presidential election.
President Macky Sall’s decision to push back the February 25 vote until December plunged Senegal into a crisis which has seen three dead amid clashes between protesters and security forces.
“Due to the dissemination on social networks of several subversive hate messages that have already provoked violent demonstrations… mobile data is suspended this Tuesday 13 February,” the Ministry of Communication, Telecommunications and Digital Energy said in a statement.
Access to mobile data was temporarily restricted eight days ago when parliament backed Sall’s decision to postpone the election.
Rights activists and Senegal’s major international partners, including the United States and the European Union, severely criticised this decision.
Access was restored again on Wednesday.
The move to cut mobile internet was a repeat of a move last June, where Senegal’s government restricted access amid high tensions in the country.
The measure has become a common response to curb mobilisation and communication via social networks, strongly condemned by rights activists.
A 16-year-old died following clashes in southern Senegal, a hospital source and a local politician confirmed with France 24 on Sunday, the third fatality in unrest after President Sall’s postponed the presidential election.
AFP
