Tunisia says it is lifting a nationwide nighttime curfew declared last month amid the worst social unrest since the country’s 2011 revolution.
The 8:00 pm to 5:00 am curfew was established January 22, prompted by sometimes violent demonstrations against unemployment across the nation.
With a youth unemployment rate of nearly 30 percent, protests worsened following the death of an unemployed man in the central town of Kasserine.
The young man, who was denied a government job, climbed an electric transmission tower and was electrocuted during a January 16 protest.
Demonstrations in the town then spread to other regions, including the capital Tunis, where stores and a bank were burned and looted.
Tunisia’s Interior Ministry says security has improved since protests erupted.
“In light of the improvement in the security situation,” the Interior Ministry stated, “it was decided that from Thursday ... the curfew on all Tunisian territory will be lifted."
The recent curfew came just after another nighttime curfew had been imposed when a bus bombing in Tunis killed 12 presidential guards. After the November 24 suicide attack claimed by Islamic State militants, the government also declared a nationwide state of emergency.
The curfew lasted until December, but the state of emergency remains in place.
