DAKAR - A group of hackers called Mysterious Team made multiple Senegalese government websites go off-line on Friday night by hitting them with denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, a government spokesperson said.
The group claimed responsibility for the attacks in a series of Twitter posts using the hashtag #FreeSenegal used by campaigners alleging political repression in Senegal.
The attacks come at a time of heightened political tensions in Senegal which is widely considered to be one of West Africa' most stable democracies.
In a statement early on Saturday, government spokesperson Abdou Karim Fofana said all efforts were being made to bring the sites back online.
As of Saturday afternoon, the presidency's site was online but other official websites still appeared to be off-line, including the government and finance ministry sites.
DDoS attacks work by directing high volumes of internet traffic towards targeted servers in a bid to knock them off-line.
The country has been shaken by more than two years of sometimes violent protests over a host of issues including fears among the opposition that President Macky Sall may seek a third term in office in the February 2024 election.
The opposition has also accused Sall's government of using the judicial machinery to target potential challengers such as popular opposition politician Ousmane Sonko, who placed third in the 2019 presidential race. The authorities deny ongoing legal cases against Sonko are politically motivated.
On its Twitter account, the so-called Mysterious Team group says its members are "cyber warriors from Bangladesh".
The group is little-known, but has carried out previous cyberattacks against the Ethiopian health ministry and Indian media, according to the European Repository of Cyber Incidents, an independent research consortium that analyses cyber incidents.
The connection between Bangladesh and Senegal was not clear. Contacted by Reuters about its reasons for targeting the Senegalese authorities, a representative of Mysterious Team said: "We are working for justice for Senegal innocent peoples."
Sonko court case
Sonko, 48, is accused of sexually assaulting and making death threats to a woman who worked in a massage parlour in 2021. He denies wrongdoing and has boycotted the court proceedings.
On Wednesday, Sonke called on supporters to join him on a march of defiance to the capital after a prosecutor asked a court to find him guilty and sentence him to 10 years in prison on rape charges. The verdict is expected on June 1.
Such a sentence would likely bar him from running for president in next year's election. The case has fuelled unrest, undermining Senegal's image as one of West Africa’s most stable democracies.
"Let's all go to Dakar to confront Macky Sall... Let all the young people who believe in our project join us in Dakar," Sonko said from the southern city of Ziguinchor, where he is mayor.
The proposed march could bring further instability to Senegal, where violent protests have taken place since Sonko was first detained for alleged rape in 2021.
"Now we have to face (President) Macky Sall and fight," Sonko told a crowd of followers in a speech that was streamed online.
Particularly popular among young people, Sonko says his long-running legal troubles are a ploy to bar him from the polls in February 2024. He was handed a suspended prison sentence in a separate libel case this month, which he has appealed.
The authorities deny that the cases are politically motivated.
REUTERS