Senegal, Gambia cut off from outside world

  1. Posted on Monday 9 August 2010 - 16:08
    Kemo
    Image of Kemo
    Kemo Cham, AfricaNewsreporter in Dakar, Senegal
    Gambians and Senegalese were cut off from the rest of the world for over 24 hours, during the last weekend, as communication services in either country came to an abrupt halt. In Gambia, while there was no internet connection throughout Thursday, the telephone lines were intact.
    Senegal map
    In neighbouring Senegal, however, both inbound and outbound communications were greatly disrupted with internet connections as well as telephone connections going dead, totally impeding the flow of information from and into the country.

    There is no immediate evidence to link the development in the two countries. But the situation in Senegal was as a direct effect of a strike by telecommunications workers.

    Workers at Sonatel, the national telecommunications provider, are angered by government's plan that will introduce a new operator, Global Voice, which is poised to closely control inbound and outbound communications.

    Union members condemn the accompanying rising cost of incoming international calls.
    Specifically, they are just opposed to the taking over by Global Voice. They say the decision by the government tantamount to the signing of a ‘long-term death’ warrant for the company, a very important element of the Senegalese economy.

    The arrangement surrounding the coming of Global Voice to Senegal has been the subject of a persistently heated debate in the Senegalese media.

    In an editorial published Friday, Walf - Grand Place, one of three newspapers published by the multimedia group Walfadjri, contested the decision by Sonatel workers to “punish” the ordinary Senegalese. It described the development as “Sabotage of Network.”

    “Senegal cut the rest of the world”, headlined what is arguably Senegal’s largest web based news provider, Seneweb. It reported on the same day that Senegalese in the Diaspora where cut off from their families back home for the whole of Thursday.

    Despite the failure of prolongation of the strike into the week end, as had been predicted, consumers of telecommunications services in Senegal remain wary of the next move by the union members.

    As if to sum up the general feeling, a Dakar based foreign journalist described the situation on their facebook page as: “A time bomb waiting to explode!”

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