By Houda Mzioudet,
Tunis, 22 January 2016:
Libyan border guards today closed the Wazen-Dehiba border crossing with Tunisia today, amid concerns about the . . .[restrict]security situation in Tunisia following protests in a number southern and west central Tunisian towns and cities this week.
Fearing that the situation might further deteriorate in Tunisia, the border guards from Nalut, in coordination with Tunisian army, decided it would be safer to close the crossing, a civil society activist from Dehiba told the Libya Herald.
“I went to the border crossing a few hours ago and found Tunisian army tanks on the road to the crossing,” he added.
Despite reports that the main Ras Jedir border coast road crossing had also closed, it remains open. However, Tunisian border police there are advising travellers not to use it because of continuing tensions in the border town of Ben Guerdane, where resentment against Libyans has mixed with the general popular unrest in the country.
Because of the situation in Ben Guerdane, road traffic between Libya and Tunisia has largely diverted to the southern Wazen-Dahina route in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, in the Ben Guerdane area, a Tunisian military patrol today shot dead a smuggler and wounded another in the nearby border buffer zone, the Tunisian Defence Ministry has said.
“Smugglers, in Libyan and Tunisian cars, who were exchanging goods, opened fire as a military patrol approached before retreating into Libyan territory,“ a ministry statement read.
The Tunisians also fired on four other vehicles in the buffer zone which likewise fled back across the border.
In a separate incident, the Tunisian army arrested four people found in the buffer zone, two of them Libyans. The other two were Syrian and a Tunisian. It has not been revealed what they were up to.
Meanwhile, reports that the Egyptian have closed the border crossing at the other side of the country at Musaid have also been denied. [/restrict]
