Burkina Faso government extends internet suspension amid protests

Civilian organizations protest after an attack on a gendarmerie post that killed 32, calling for Burkina Faso President Roch Cabore to resign and French troops to patrol the country in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, November 16, 2021.

Burkina Faso’s government, facing growing outrage over repeated killings by Islamist militants, extended its suspension of mobile internet service on Wednesday, citing conflicting reasons why it blocked access in the first place. Went.

Officials shut down mobile internet on Saturday, which they later justified, citing a legal provision relating to “quality and security of networks and services and compliance with national defense and public safety obligations”.

The suspension came amid protests against the government and allied French forces after suspected jihadists killed 49 military police officers and four civilians near the northern city of Inata on 14 November.

The internet outage was due to end on Wednesday evening, but the government ordered it to be extended for a further 96 hours, citing the same legal provision, in a statement signed by government spokesman Oseni Tamboura.

However, hours earlier, Tamboura offered a different explanation for the initial Internet outage in comments to reporters.

“We thought our country needed silence… to ensure that we could bury our soldiers in a dignified manner. This ban is strictly tied to that,” he said.

Several military police officers killed in Inata were buried on Tuesday in a ceremony that some of their relatives and friends criticized as lacking dignity. read more

Opponents of President Roch Kabore called for renewed protests on Saturday against the government’s inability to stop violence by militants from Al Qaeda and Islamic State’s West African regional allies.

Some of the public anger has been directed against former colonial power France, which has stationed thousands of troops in the region.

Hundreds of people gathered in the city of Kaya this weekend to stop a convoy of French armored vehicles headed for neighboring Niger. The convoy has still not left Burkina Faso.