Closed since March 19 following clashes between local militias and an Interior Ministry force, the main border crossing between Libya and Tunisia will remain closed, “as long as it takes” to put an end to to the “trafficking” that passes through it, announced Imad Trabelsi, the Libyan Minister of the Interior during a press conference in Tripoli on the evening of March 21.
We must “secure the borders and fight crime and trafficking,” insisted the Minister of the Interior of the Tripoli government, who is trying to implement a security plan to fight against smuggling and trafficking. Very angry and surrounded by his men, the minister affirmed that the authorities would not back down “in the face of drug traffickers and smugglers”. He described the Ras Jedir border post in the northwest of the country as “one of the biggest smuggling and crime points in the world.”
“I will not leave this passage open”
Imad Trabelsi went so far as to threaten to permanently close this border post: “If the Ras Jedir border post is not placed under the authority of the State, to secure it by force of the military region of the west coast, a force attached to the Ministry of the Interior and led by the officer in charge of the border post, I will not leave this passage open. This region borders a neighboring country and it cannot continue like this. We have two other border crossings al ‘Assa and Machfa-al Saleh, and as early as tomorrow I could have the budget to reestablish them. Ras Jedir, we will close it with concrete blocks.“
On March 19, the law enforcement force, attached to the Ministry of the Interior, dispatched to Ras Jedir to stop smuggling and ensure the safety of travelers, was targeted by armed groups from the town of Zouara, 60 kilometers from the border.
