President Marzouki Says State of Emergency to Be Lifted This Month

President Marzouki at the African Union assembly hall yesterday

ADDIS ABABA – While talking to the press today at Addis Ababa, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki announced that the state of emergency prevailing in Tunisia will be lifted at the end of January 2013. The president noted that the decision comes as a result of the stabilization of the security situation. “I would like to thank the members of the army and the security forces who worked tirelessly for the last two years and would like reassure the Tunisian people about the security situation and send them a message of hope about the future”. said President Marzouki.

Marzouki last extended the state of emergency on October 31, 2012 immediately following a bout of unrest in the western Tunis suburb of Douar Hicher, which was first sparked by an attack on a local alcohol vendor. The National Guard intervened in a bid to restore order and apprehend the perpetrators of the assault, whom locals described as “Salafists.” On the night of the attack on the alcohol vendor, National Guard units responded to a distress call from a local of the Douar Hicher area. Clashes ensued between “Salafists” and National Guard forces, leaving the head of the Manouba National Guard unit wounded.

Two days later, a National Guard patrol arrested a group men, identified as “leaders of the Salafist movement” by the officers, who made the arrest. That night, around 200 supporters of the detained “Salafists” attacked the local National Guard station, and two security officials were injured and one assailant killed in the resultant melee.

The incident was preceded a month earlier by the September 14 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tunis during a protest over an amateur film that offended Muslims across the world for its depiction of the life of the Prophet Mohamed. Demonstrators that day scaled the U.S. embassy walls and set fire and vandalized sections of the compound.