Gabon says it has lifted a social media ban imposed eight months ago, a move that drew widespread criticism at the time.

The High Communication Authority (HAC) announced the U-turn on Saturday in a televised statement. The BBC has approached the country's media regulator for comment.

The HAC introduced the ban on 17 February, saying online content was fuelling conflict and deepening divisions in the country.

The move came as a shock to the central African nation of about 2.5 million people, where social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram have been particularly popular with younger people who use it for business as well as pleasure.

Many turned to VPNs to keep accessing social media sites after the ban.

The ban came at a time when Gabonese President Brice Oligui Nguema was facing a wave of social unrest less than a year after his election.

Teachers and civil servants had staged strikes over what they said were low pay and poor working conditions.

The opposition said the suspension was an abuse of power.

Nguema won last year's elections with more than 90% of the vote, two years after his coup ended more than five decades of Bongo family rule.

At the time, he pledged to reform Gabon, a small, oil- and timber-rich country, where digital blackouts were used by the previous governments to control information.

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Gabon reopens social media after eight-month ban

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