Nigeria Lifts Curfew on Africa’s Biggest City After Protests

(Bloomberg) -- Nigerian authorities lifted a nightly curfew that was imposed on Lagos, Africa’s biggest city, to quell two weeks of mass protests against police brutality.

Lagos state Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu removed restrictions that only allowed the city’s population to leave their homes between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., his Commissioner for Information and Strategy Gbenga Omotoso said on Twitter on Saturday. However, a previous curfew from midnight to 4 a.m. introduced by the federal government to curb the spread of the coronavirus will remain in place, he said.

Sanwo-Olu instituted a 24-hour curfew on his state on Oct. 20 in response to “the hijack of the peaceful” demonstrations against police violence, according to Omotoso. As the protests abated after two weeks, shopping malls, several bank branches and a number of police stations were invaded or looted. The governor eased the measures on Oct. 23 and again on Oct. 30.

The government said 69 people, including 18 security force members, died from violence related to the protests that spread throughout the country earlier in October. Twelve protesters were killed when troops fired on crowds that gathered in Lagos on Oct. 20 in defiance of the curfew, according to human-rights group Amnesty International. The Nigerian army denied the allegation.

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