Tripoli, 2 August:
The main Libyan-Tunisian border crossing at Ras . . .[restrict]Jedir briefly reopened this morning after a being partially closed for 11 days. After an hour, it was shut again.
According to the Tunisian authorities the Libyan border guards decided that there was so little traffic that it was not worth keeping open. A Libyan official, Kamel Mahmoud Aoun who heads the passport control at the border was reported as saying that today was not a full reopening. That would happen tomorrow, when he expected traffic to be flowing normally.
There was no prior announcement about the crossing reopening.
It was shut on 22 July on the Libyan side after attacks on Libyan vehicles in Tunisia after Libya’s border police started requiring Tunisian drivers to provide up-to-date documentation for their vehicles. The attacks were said to be the work of families and and friends of Tunisian smugglers. The Tunisian authorities then shut their side the next day after Tunisians were subjected to counter attacks in Libya.
It was not a full closure. Tunisia returning home from Libya were allowed to pass through as well Libyans going the other way. However, visitors to either country had to take the much longer route via Dahiba and Nalut. Exceptions were made for emergency cases.
The Ras Jedir crossing has been closed on several occasions in the past 10 months, mainly because of disturbances and attacks by smugglers on both sides.
This has, however,been the longest closure since the end of the Libyan revolution ended. [/restrict]
