NetBlocks said social media and messaging apps, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Youtube, were restricted on Friday morning, before a planned demonstration by civil society and opposition parties led by the protest movement “Y En A Marre “(Enough is Enough).
Sonko, a 46-year-old tax inspector who came in third with 15% of the vote in the 2019 presidential election, enjoys broad support among young Senegalese. He will be questioned after he was removed from his parliamentary immunity last week.
While not immune to political unrest, it has been several years since Senegal – one of West Africa’s most stable democracies – saw such a stalemate between protesters and authorities.
“We ask the Senegalese authorities to respect the freedom of peaceful assembly across the country,” said Samira Daoud, regional director for the human rights group Amnesty International.
Amnesty expressed concern over what it said was a wave of arbitrary arrests in a crackdown that caused two private television channels to be suspended for 72 hours for their coverage of the protests.
The streets of Dakar were quiet on Friday morning. Some were cleared of rubble and burnt tires the day before, when protesters threw stones at riot police who fired guns and tear gas in response.
In preparation for the protests, some schools and shops were closed after looting and destruction in several neighborhoods in the capital.