By RFIPalled on 02-17-2019editing 17-02-2019 at 00:45
Intense negotiations take place between Tunis and Tripoli after the abduction of 14 Tunisian workers on February 14 in Libyan territory. The kidnappers demand the release of a Libyan detained in Tunisia.
The 14 Tunisian nationals were kidnapped as they went, as they do every day, to the oil refinery where they work, about 50 kilometers west of the Libyan capital Tripoli.
One group reported kidnapping in an attempt to release a Libyan detainee in Tunisia. The latter was sentenced to twenty years in prison for his involvement in drug trafficking.
Far from being an organized militia, the kidnappers are neighbors of neighborhoods and family members of the prisoner, imprisoned in the Tunisian city of Medenine.
The foreign ministries of the two countries quickly came into contact with each other to find a quick solution to these kidnappings. A crisis unit has been set up.
Towards a quick exit?
Negotiators include a human rights activist based in Medenine, who has extensive contacts with notables and officials across the border.
According to him, every month, Tunisians, among the 12,000 settled in the country, are kidnapped and released after negotiations. In relation with officials of the city of Zaouia, he hopes that the group can be released within 48 hours.
The last major abduction of Tunisians, a fortnight in September 2017, had ended in a few hours by their release. Legal expulsion, allowing the Libyan national to be transferred to a Libyan prison to serve his sentence and ransom payments are among the usual outcomes of these kidnappings.
► An agreement for the resumption of trade on the border between Tunisia and Libya
On the same subject
Tunisians form first IS jihadist contingent in Libya
The fight against smuggling in Tunisia
Tunisia: life imprisonment for seven defendants in the Bardo and Sousse trials
An agreement for the resumption of trade on the border between Tunisia and Libya
Libya: Rape inflicted on men in prison as a weapon of war
comments