Tunisia lifts curfew

Tunisian authorities lifted on Thursday the curfew imposed last Jan. 22 all over the country in response to a wave of violent popular protests, unprecedented since the Tunisian revolution that overthrew dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

According to an interior ministry statement, the curfew was lifted after the improvement in the security situation in all Tunisian territories.

The government imposed the curfew four days after protests against unemployment and poverty, especially after violent escalations.

Throughout two weeks of protests, authorities arrested more than 1,000 people and managed to control the protests that are still ongoing in southern areas.

Many of the detainees are linked to radical religious movements as well as to the former regime, who tried to take advantage of the ongoing social unrest.

This is the fourth time the Tunisian government has imposed a curfew after the Bardo Museum attack last March 18, in which 22 tourists were killed.

In June a curfew was imposed after 38 tourists were killed in an attack in a hotel in Sousse, and yet again in November after 12 presidential guards were killed in Tunis.