The Government of Burkina Faso has reduced access to Facebook for civil society due to the context of terrorist violence that has affected the African country, announced today(20) the country's state information agency.
"I also don't have access to Facebook; we had already informed you that, for reasons of security and other concerns of national interest, the Government is entitled to make adjustments“, said the spokesman for the Government of Burkina Faso, Alkassoum Maïga, in statements to the portal Burkina24, cited by the Spanish news agency, Efe.
"We all see the situation we are experiencing now in our country, I believe 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, it seems clear to me that the choice of national interest must to be above our private interests“, argued the Government spokesman to justify the restricted access to Facebook and the Internet in general.
It should be noted that the problems accessing Facebook via a mobile Internet connection, used by the majority of Burkina Faso's inhabitants, began on the 10th of January, in addition to the fact that between the 20th and 28th of November the Internet was cut off for reasons in "public security“, following a terrorist attack in the north of the country, on the 14th, which left 53 dead.
Based on this internet cut, a demonstration for Saturday (22) with the purpose of criticizing the insecurity was, however, prohibited by the Ouagadougou council, in the same place where a rally last November had ended in violence.
Another demonstration in support of Mali is also scheduled for Saturday, a neighboring country that has been sanctioned by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), but which has not yet been banned, according to the French news agency, France-Presse ( AFP). Insecurity in Burkina Faso has already caused 1,5 million people to be displaced, according to government data.
