Calm prevailed for the first break in the Ramadan fast in Niamey after riots in protest against the curfew and the ban on collective prayers, decreed to fight against the spread of the coronavirus, AFP journalists found.
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In the large popular district of Lazaret, epicenter of the riots on Sunday and Monday, people hurried to reach their homes before the breaking of the fast at 7:10 p.m. local time (6:10 p.m. GMT) while the traditional sellers of hot or cold water, couscous or dates were on the street. As since the beginning of the crisis, few people wore a mask too expensive for certain purses but nevertheless compulsory in Niamey since April 10. The police were discreet after the riots that broke out between April 17 and 19 in the capital after similar protests in the rest of the country. Over 200 people were then arrested.
The authorities released ballast on Wednesday, reducing the curfew which is now in effect from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. (8:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. GMT), instead of 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., thus opening a time slot allowing the breaking of the fast outside the covers -fire. "We know that it is impossible to completely lift the curfew, so loosening it can be said Alhamdoulilah (thank you Allah). In all cases during Ramadan people buy enough to break the fast before dark, so being able to sell until 9 pm is already good, " says Idi Moussa, butcher in Lazaret. On the condition of anonymity, a resident believes that the riots are the work of "young people living in informal sales at night and activists of Muslim associations who have not understood the interest of the measures" against the spread of the coronavirus.
“There were no awareness-raising missions. People don't understand the disease. On the one hand, it is said that there is no cure, on the other that there are cured. People don't understand the measurements. We have to explain better , ”he adds. “With the reduction of the curfew we breathe a little. As we are in Ramadan, we would have liked to stay outside a little longer especially with the heat wave, but two hours more outside it is already a good breath of oxygen that we breathe " , says Moumouni Harouna, goalkeeper at Danzama-Koira district, close to Lazaret. Niger records 671 cases of coronavirus with 24 deaths, according to an official report published Thursday evening. The country has already declared a state of emergency, closed borders, places of worship and schools, and isolated the capital from the rest of the country.