(Tripoli) The UN Support Mission in Libya (Manul) on Thursday expressed concern over kidnappings, detentions and enforced disappearances of citizens and public figures, including a former minister, warning against the establishment of a climate of fear and tension.
The UN is “deeply concerned about the continued abductions, arbitrary arrests and disappearances of citizens and public figures by various security organs in Libya”, according to a statement issued on Thursday.
Faraj Abderrahmane Boumtari, former Minister of Finance in 2018 of the government of national unity, “was arrested on Wednesday on his arrival at Mitiga airport (Tripoli) and taken to an unknown location,” said Manul.
According to local media, he was arrested by agents of the Internal Security Organ (OSI), but this information has not yet been confirmed by the authorities.
Members of Faraj Abderrahmane Boumtari’s tribe, the Zouaya, threatened Thursday to block oil terminals in the east of the country if the former minister was not released.
Two oil fields in the south, al-Sharara and al-Fil, where a third of Libya’s black gold production comes from, are already blocked by protesters, according to unverified reports circulating on social networks. by AFP.
Thursday, “five members of the High Council of State (HCE) were banned from traveling to the same airport,” announced Manul, citing “information”.
Mitiga airport is held by the authorities, but also by security organizations, each of which has the power to prohibit travelers from entering or leaving it.
The UN mission called on the Libyan authorities and security organs to “release all those arbitrarily detained, to guarantee independent investigations” into these kidnappings.
For Manul, these latest tensions generate a “climate of fear and fuel inter-community and inter-tribal tensions”, “unfavorable to the holding of transparent and inclusive elections or national reconciliation”.
Endowed with the most abundant oil reserves in Africa, Libya has been plunged into chaos since the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and rocked by divisions between the east and the west of the country.
Two governments have been vying for power there for more than a year: one based in Tripoli (west) and recognized by the UN, led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah, the other in the east, supported by the powerful Marshal Khalifa Haftar.