Tripoli, 4 June:
Government forces in Kufra today gave Tebu militiamen in the town 24 hours to allow them into the Tebu-inhabited . . .[restrict]districts of Swaidiya and Qaderfi or they would move in by force. The ultimatum follows further clashes in the town between the government’s Libya Shield forces and the Tebus.
A Shield commander, Muhammad Ibrahim Al-Araibi, said that despite meetings between the authorities and Tebu leaders to resolve differences, the latter had repeatedly ignored calls to allow the national army into the two districts. He also claimed that there were a number of foreign militiamen there and that over the past two days they had been shooting at his forces.
On Saturday, a vehicle belonging to the head of the Shield forces, Wisam Bin Hamid, was fired at — it is claimed by Tebu gunmen. As a result, the Tebu were ordered to hand-over the perpetrators. The demand was also ignored.
Al-Araibi also disclosed today that the Shield forces had briefly entered the armed enclaves and had seized a number of the “foreigners”, whom he said were Chadian, but that local Tebus had counter-attacked and released them.
The Shield forces have over the past month expelled several hundred people from Kufra whom they said were illegal Chadian residents. Almost all were Tebus.
For his part, the leader of the Tebus in south-west Libya, Isa Abdul-Majid, said he had complained to both Kufra Local Council and its military coucnil about the behavior of the Shield forces, whom he accused of attacking Tebu people. He warned that any attempt by the Shield forces to enter the two districts would be “disastrous”. [/restrict]
