Tripoli, 5 August:
The southern Libyan-Tunisian border crossing at Dahiba . . .[restrict]was closed by the Libyan authorities today, Sunday, following angry clashes between Libyans and Tunisians over the weekend.
The dispute started on Friday between when a Libyan and a Tunisian, bith unnamed, were involved in an argument. By Saturday it had degenerated into a general conflict between Libyans and Tunisians. A Libyan vehicle on the Tunisian side of the border in Dahiba was attacked as were three Tunisian vehicles on the Libyan side.
The Libyans said today they had closed the border “to prevent the situation escalating”.
According to the mayor of the Dahiba, Mohkhtar Amri, a meeting took place between the security forces and members of local civil society organisations on the Tunisian side and the military councils and notables from Nalut and Wazen on the Libyan side following the attacks. He said that it had been decided to compensate the vehicle owners and work to ensure better collaboration between officials on both side of the border.
The main border crossing at Ras Jedir only reopened on Thursday after being closed for 11 days because of attacks on Tunisian vehicles in Libya Libyan ones in Tunisia. It promptly shut after an hour and was only fully reopened the next day. [/restrict]
