Libya on Tuesday sent around 100 trucks loaded with sugar, oil, flour, and rice to neighboring Tunisia, which is facing recurring shortages of these products, the Libyan embassy in Tunis said.
“This is a donation from the government of national unity (based in Tripoli) to Tunisia to help it overcome the severe shortages of basic products that the Tunisian people are facing,” he told AFP. Naim Acibi, Embassy Press Officer.
This aid was sent on board 96 trucks which arrived in Tunisian territory in the morning via the Ras Jedir border post, he said.
According to him, a total of 170 trucks are expected in Tunisia to transport all the Libyan aid.
Tunisia has been in the grip of a serious economic and financial crisis, which has resulted in particular in chronic shortages of basic food products against a backdrop of strong political tensions since President Kais Saied seized full power in July 2021.
The Ras Jedir post is the main crossing point between western Libya and southeastern Tunisia, a territory that lives largely from cross-border trade, including smuggling.
Besides trade, Tunisia is the first destination of the population of western Libya for medical care.
The sending of this aid comes less than two months after a visit to Tunisia at the end of November by the head of the government of Tripoli, Abdelhamid Dbeibah, which had marked a warming of relations between the two countries.
Libya descended into chaos after the uprising that brought down the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with rival powers, a myriad of armed militias, and foreign mercenaries scattered across the country amid foreign interference.
