The social media apps TikTok and Telegram, as well as an online betting app, have been banned in Somalia, according to the authorities, which claimed that "terrorists" were using them to disseminate false information.
The action is being taken ahead of a second phase of a military attack against Al-Shabab, an Islamist terrorist organization that has been fighting the Mogadishu government for more than 15 years in a deadly war.
Internet service providers were warned by the Ministry of Communications and Technology to comply with the prohibition by August 24 or risk further legal action.
Since August of last year, the army has been conducting an attack against the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabab in central Somalia, collaborating with local clan militias in a mission supported by African Union soldiers and US airstrikes.
Despite being forced out of the country's capital, Mogadishu, in 2011, Al-Shabab rebels still hold swaths of the countryside and carry out deadly attacks on military, political, and civilian targets.
The unstable Horn of Africa nation's president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, has pledged to drive out jihadists, and he is soon to declare a second phase of the attack against them in southern Somalia.
The action is being taken ahead of a second phase of a military attack against Al-Shabab, an Islamist terrorist organization that has been fighting the Mogadishu government for more than 15 years in a deadly war.
Internet service providers were warned by the Ministry of Communications and Technology to comply with the prohibition by August 24 or risk further legal action.
Since August of last year, the army has been conducting an attack against the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabab in central Somalia, collaborating with local clan militias in a mission supported by African Union soldiers and US airstrikes.
Despite being forced out of the country's capital, Mogadishu, in 2011, Al-Shabab rebels still hold swaths of the countryside and carry out deadly attacks on military, political, and civilian targets.
The unstable Horn of Africa nation's president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, has pledged to drive out jihadists, and he is soon to declare a second phase of the attack against them in southern Somalia.
