Gabon says it has lifted a ban on social media imposed eight months ago – a move that triggered 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 ban had been introduced on 17 February, with the HAC saying that 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 in order to continue accessing social media sites following the ban.

The ban had been imposed at a time when the 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 had ended more than five decades of rule by the Bongo family.

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.