The Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid, disclosed the measure in a meeting with journalists and urged the public to cooperate.

He said the government has also deployed a "surgical operation based on intelligence" in crime prone areas “to flash out criminals and suspected criminals.”

“‘Operation Calm Life’, which is the joint anti-armed robbery military and police operations has been enhanced with immediate effect. In this regard there will be heavy military and police presence in our major cities across the country starting from today,” he said.

He noted also that government has further directed the Energy Ministry to speed up the lighting of cities and communities to increase visibility.

“Government further directs that all financial institutions install CCTV cameras on their premises. Government will roll out a programme to link all these CCTV cameras to a National Operation Command Centre,” he added.