Liberia says it has lifted a state of emergency imposed for its "very survival" three months ago as the deadly Ebola virus cut a swathe through the west African nation.
The announcement, the clearest sign yet that the country believes it is beating an epidemic which has claimed nearly 3000 Liberian lives, follows a dramatic recent drop in new cases.
"I have informed the leadership of the national legislature that I will not seek an extension of the state of emergency," President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced on state-owned radio network ELBC on Thursday.
Sirleaf announced the emergency regime on August 6, speaking of "a clear and present danger" from Ebola, which at the time had claimed around 1000 lives across west Africa.
Parliament had been due to discuss extending the order, originally envisaged as a three-month measure, before Sirleaf's intervention.
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She said the relaxation was "not because the fight against Ebola is over," but because recent successes in battling the epidemic had combined "to reposition our efforts to sustain our fight against the virus".
She added that Liberia had acted "decisively" by imposing tough new regulations closing borders, imposing curfews and quarantines, shutting schools and restricting public gatherings.
"As the virus progressed, posing a clear danger to the state, our neighbours and the rest of the world, we were compelled to declare a state of emergency," she said.
