Senegal Cuts Access to Internet Amid Protests

Amidst one of Senegal’s deadliest bouts of civil unrest in decades, the government has decided to cut access to mobile internet services in certain areas.

“Because of the spread of hateful and subversive messages … mobile Internet is temporarily suspended at certain hours of the day,” said an official statement released to the local press on Sunday, 4 June.

The Western African country has seen violent protests since Thursday, 1 June, when opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko, was sentenced to two years in prison for immoral behaviour. The 48-year-old former tax inspector was unable to attend his own trial.
Sonko’s supporters have claimed that his conviction of “corrupting” a young woman is politically motivated, as he will be unable to run in next year’s presidential election campaign.

Currently, Sonko is considered President Macky Sall’s main competition as he came third in the country’s previous 2019 presidential election, and is popular with the unemployed youth demographic.

According to the local division of the Red Cross, at least 360 people have been injured in the protest that raged in the capital, Dakar, and Sonko’s home city of Ziguinchor, while reports estimate that as many as 16 people have been killed.

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