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Senegal Suspends TikTok After Blocking Several Message Apps

The government has suspended social network TikTok until further notice. The government statement said that TikTok is a favorite social media network for "people with malicious intent to disseminate hateful and subversive messages that threatens the stability of the country", according to the communication and telecommunications ministry.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Ousmane Sonko is reported to be on the fourth day of his hunger strike after he was arrested. He faces seven charges brought against him including call for insurrection; conspiracy; undermining state security, and association of criminals in connection with a terrorist enterprise.

His political party, Pastef-Les Patriotes, has been dissolved by the Senegalese government. Al Jazeera reports that two men were found dead in Ziguinchor where 2024 presidential hopeful Sonko is mayor.

The Pastef leader is mired in a flurry of legal woes which he says are attempts at keeping him out of politics. He was arrested on March 3, 2021, on allegations of rape. The news of Sonko's arrest led to clashes in the capital, Dakar in which five people were killed.

In June 2023, Sonko was sentenced in absentia to two years in jail for immoral behaviour toward individuals younger than 21. This makes him ineligible to run for president in next year's election. He has denied any wrongdoing and is yet to be taken to prison.

Agence de Presse Sénégalaise (APS)

A Molotov cocktail was thrown at an AFTU transport network minibus, killing two people in the commune of Hann-Bel Air in Dakar. It is not clear whether it is linked to nationwide protests against the arrest and imprisonment of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko.

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