Senegal’s authorities quickly suspended cell phone knowledge on Sunday because the nation reels from days of lethal clashes between police and supporters of opposition chief Ousmane Sonko.
The ministry of communication, telecommunications and digital economic system mentioned that due to the diffusion of “subversive messages in a context of public dysfunction in sure localities,” cellphone web knowledge can be suspended throughout sure time intervals.
The assertion comes after days of lethal clashes all through the West African nation between Sonko’s supporters and police. The official demise toll is unclear. The federal government says that 15 individuals, together with two members of the safety forces, have been killed, whereas the opposition says 19 individuals have died.
The clashes first broke out on Thursday, after Sonko was convicted of corrupting youth however acquitted on prices of raping a lady who labored at a therapeutic massage parlor and making demise threats in opposition to her. Sonko, who didn’t attend his trial in Dakar, was sentenced to 2 years in jail. His lawyer mentioned {that a} warrant hadn’t but been issued for his arrest.
Sonko got here third in Senegal’s 2019 presidential election and is widespread with the nation’s youth. His supporters preserve that his authorized troubles are a part of a authorities effort to derail his candidacy within the 2024 presidential election.
Sonko is taken into account to be President Macky Sall’s principal competitors and has urged Sall to state publicly that he gained’t search a 3rd time period in workplace. Sonko hasn’t been seen or heard from because the verdict.
The worldwide group has referred to as on Senegal’s authorities to resolve the tensions.
The federal government had already suspended entry to some social media websites, similar to Fb, WhatsApp and Twitter, which it mentioned was getting used to incite violence.
At a information convention on Saturday night, the federal government mentioned it could take all mandatory measures to safe the nation.
“I wish to reassure the Senegalese those that no matter assaults we have now, the state will face them,” Inside Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome mentioned. Round 500 individuals have been arrested throughout the nation, together with these belonging to political events in addition to those that are simply making an attempt to scare individuals, he mentioned.
Rights teams have condemned the federal government crackdown, which it says has included arbitrary arrests.
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