The three-month curfew applied in some parts of restive North Sinai will end Saturday after it was renewed for three times following an escalating wave of terrorist operations in the province, Al-Bawaba News reported. Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi issued a decree on April 25 imposing a nightlong curfew — from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. — and state of emergency in the northern and central Sinai Peninsula, especially Al-Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah cities. The curfew was first applied, on 25 October 2014, for just three months but has been renewed ever since. It was originally applied a day after 33 army personnel were killed in a car bomb attack, with 30 others injured. Residents of North Sinai called frequently security agencies to cancel the 11-hour overnight curfew or reduce it to six hours as they suffered from the decline of the movement of trade during this period. The residents delivered several messages to the governor of North Sinai expressing local opposition to the strict security measures and detailing the difficulties of living under that curfew. Egypt's army has been fighting a decade-long militant Islamist insurgency that has spiked since the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi, in July 2013 following nationwide mass protests against his rule. Hundreds of police and soldiers, as well as civilians, have been killed in militant attacks in the following months.
