13/09/07 (B412) BBC : Le couvre-feu en Somalie est levé pendant le Ramadan. Curfew lifted for Ramadan (Info lectrice – En Anglais)

A curfew imposed in Somalia’s
capital, Mogadishu, in June has been lifted for the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan.

"After
consultations with the National Security Committee, it was decided to lift
the curfew from today," said interior minister Mohamed Gule. Mogadishu
has seen rising violence since Ethiopian-backed government troops ousted
Islamists last December.

Hundreds have died in clashes between Islamist-backed
insurgents and government-backed Ethiopian troops.

Mogadishu’s deputy police
commissioner, Abdullahi Hassan Barise, said: "The curfew could not be
there indefinitely; the situation seems a bit calm at the moment and people
have to feel free to perform prayers in this holy month.

" Lifting the
curfew has been good news for restaurant owners like Sayid Ali Sheikh. "Since
the curfew was imposed I was not able to open my restaurant and that really
affected the life of my family," he said. Another resident Asha Dahir
Muqtar, a mother of six, has bad memories of the curfew.

"I remember
a night when my two-year-old son was wounded by a bullet following a gun
battle near my house. I could not take him to the hospital and he was suffering
and screaming before my eyes until the next morning," Asha said.

According
to the UN refugee agency, recent attacks in the capital have forced another
400,000 people to flee the capital in the past four months.