This content was published on 20 January 2022 – 13:38
Ouagadougou, Jan 20 (EFE) .- The Government of Burkina Faso restricted access to the social network Facebook for two weeks due to the context of jihadist insecurity suffered by the African country, the state-run Burkina Faso Information Agency (AIB) reported on Thursday. .
“I don’t have access to Facebook either. We had reported that, for security reasons and other concerns of national interest, the government has the right to make regulations,” Burkinabe government spokesman Alkassoum Maïga told the press on Wednesday. collected by the local portal Burkina24.
“We all see the situation we are currently experiencing in our country. I think that if we have to choose between letting insecurity spread or taking measures that allow us to maintain a minimum of control over the situation, the choice seems clear to me that the national interest should be above our particular interests,” added Maïga.
The problems of accessing Facebook through the mobile internet connection (the one used by the majority of Burkinabe) began in Burkina Faso on January 10.
This restriction is preceded by the suspension of the mobile internet connection between November 20 and 28, 2021 for reasons of “public security”, and which took place in a tense environment in Burkina Faso after on the 14th of that month at least 53 people (49 gendarmes and 4 civilians) were killed in a terrorist attack in the north of the country.
Despite the fact that Burkina Faso has suffered from jihadist violence since 2015, this attack generated a lot of indignation and gave rise to demonstrations against insecurity in which the resignation of the Burkinabe president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, was demanded.
With the same objectives, civil society has called a new demonstration this Saturday, January 22.
Jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso are often attributed to groups affiliated with both the Al Qaeda terrorist network and the Islamic State (IS) organization, especially in the northern Sahel region, but it has spread to neighboring regions and, since 2018, to the east. from the country.
Insecurity has caused the internal displacement of more than 1.5 million people, according to data from the Burkina Faso government. EFE
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