Imad Trabelsi (second-left), interior minister in Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU), holds a press conference in Tripoli on August 23, 2024. | Photo credit: AFP
Libya’s interior minister announced on Friday that Libyan armed groups and authorities have reached an agreement in Tripoli to protect vital infrastructure, following recent fighting and United Nations concern over an emerging crisis surrounding the country’s central bank.
The North African country of 6.8 million is struggling to recover from years of conflict following a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime dictator Mohammed Gadhafi.
It is divided between the UN-recognised government led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah in the capital, Tripoli, and a rival administration backed by military dictator Khalifa Haftar in the east.
“In coordination with the Ministry of Defence, we have brought together all the security services of Tripoli and managed to reach an agreement to secure the airports and land borders as well as the headquarters of government (institutions) in the capital,” said Imad Trabelsi, interior minister of the UN-recognised government.
He said armed groups and security services had “expressed their urgent willingness” to implement the agreement.
“We will secure all government buildings, including the Central Bank of Libya, within 24 hours.”
Sediq al-Kabir, the bank’s governor since 2012, has faced criticism from those close to Prime Minister Dbeibah over his management of Libya’s oil resources and the state budget.
On Tuesday, Stephanie Cory, the acting head of the UN political mission in the country, told the UN Security Council that “the situation in Libya has deteriorated rapidly over the past two months”, citing recent fighting between armed groups on the outskirts of Tripoli and attempts to forcibly expel civilians.
The UN mission (UNSMIL) on Thursday called on all parties to exercise restraint and expressed “grave concern at reports of the gathering of military forces in Tripoli, including threats of the use of force to resolve the crisis surrounding the Libyan Central Bank.”
The US embassy also raised the tensions surrounding the bank on Thursday night, saying any attempt to resolve the matter by force would impact the integrity of the institution and its standing in the global financial system.
About two weeks ago, several dozen people, some of them armed, gathered outside the bank’s headquarters and began pressuring Kabir to resign.
And last Sunday, the director of the bank’s IT department was briefly kidnapped by an unidentified group, forcing the institution to suspend its operations until his release.