By Ahmed Elumami.
Benghazi, 15 July 2013:
Members of Libya Shield Brigade No. 409 in Tobruk have handed over their weapons and military . . .[restrict]vehicles to the Air Force Base in Tobruk.
A member of base’s media office, Mukhtar Raufa, said that equipment would now be used in helping secure the base. According to him, the guards there had only cartridges for their guns. He called on Congress and the government to help the town which was struggling with illegal immigration as well as weapons and drugs smuggling across the Egyptian border.
Although the president of Congress, Nuri Abu Sahmain, last week called on Libya Shield brigades from across the country to Tripoli to defend it, Congress in June ordered the government to draw up plans to dissolve all brigades, including Libya Shield brigades, by the end of the year. This followed the bloody incident in Benghazi in early June when demonstrators demanding the disbandment of Shield Brigade No. 1 were shot and killed. Since then a number of Shield brigades, mainly in the east of the country, have dissolved themselves.
Yesterday’s formal hand-over ceremony took place in the base attended by its commander, Colonel Ibrahim Abdu Rabah, a number of its officers, the Shield commander Adel Al-Motardi and Tobruk local officials and elders, as well as members of civil society organisations. [/restrict]
