Senegalese security forces use tear gas to break up demonstrations in front of the National Assembly in Dakar, where a constitutional amendment bill to justify postponing elections by six months will be debated this Monday.
The opposition has called for a demonstration and for MPs to block access to parliament, which is now being countered by security forces who fired two tear gas grenades to disperse a group of several dozen people they had banded together.
The protesters refused to obey orders from the authorities and retreated further, shouting “dictator Macky Sall,” the name of the Senegalese president.
Mobile Internet access was cut off this morning in Dakar in the context of the political crisis caused by the announcement of the postponement of the presidential elections on February 25, in accordance with a regulation signed on Sunday by the government’s Minister of Communications and Telecommunications. and Senegalese digital economy expert Moussa Bocar Thiam.
The minister “would like to inform the public that due to the spread of various hateful and subversive messages on social media in the context of threats to disrupt public order, mobile internet is suspended from 10 pm on Sunday,” he said late Saturday. Sunday Bokar Thiam in a statement posted on social media platform X.
This morning, many users in Dakar complained of being unable to access mobile data on their mobile phones.
The workers’ union at Sonatel, Senegal’s main telephone operator, this Sunday anticipated the possibility of ordering a possible mobile data cutoff, saying in a statement that it “does not approve of any idea by the Senegalese state to shut down or restrict the Internet.” .
The Senegalese government has already suspended mobile data internet in June 2023 amid strong public tensions.
The decision announced last Saturday by President Macky Sall to postpone presidential elections, an unprecedented decision since the country’s independence, sparked protests and a violent crackdown by security forces during the first demonstrations this Sunday in the neighboring country of Guinea-Bissau.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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