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By Libya Herald Reporters.
Tripoli, 20 May 2014:
Algeria has closed its two land border crossings with Libya and imposed what the government . . .[restrict]in Algiers has described as “a maximum state of emergency” along the entire frontier.
As the state-owned energy company Sonatrach evacuated the last of its Algerian workers today, there has been a virtual shut-down of the border posts at Tin El Koum and Debdab. Only Algerians are being permitted into Algeria and Libyans may only pass into Libya.
The Algerian daily Echorouk reported that the border would be closed indefinitely. The paper reported the Algerian foreign minister Ramtane Lamamra as saying that he did not believe that the Algerian community in Libya was being focused for attacks. Nevertheless he cautioned his nationals to use common sense and vigilance if they stayed in the county.
“Algeria will spare no effort to protect its borders” said Lamamra, adding that the Algerian armed force had “pioneering experience” in combating terrorism, a reference to the military’s ultimately successful ten-year fight against an insurrection which ended in 2002. [/restrict]
