By Hadi Fornaji,
Tunis, 24 July 2016:
Thirty seven municipalities from the Jebel Nafusa (Western Mountains) and the western Libyan seaboard have agreed to set up a municipal association to coordinate joint activities. The decision was taken at a meeting in Zintan on Friday.
The meeting was as much about a rapprochement between Zintan and nearby towns previously opposed to it, as it was about setting up the association.
Hosted and organised by Zintan, and in preparation for some weeks, the bridge building appears to have worked.
“It was very positive and very successful meeting,” one local government official told the Libya Herald.
The western seaboard towns attending were those from Sabratha to the Tunisian border. It did not include Aziziya of municipalities in the greater Tripoli conurbation.
The plan is that the association will deal with any disputes between the municipalities, such as road closures or attacks, as well as be a centre for the exchange of ideas and information and even negotiate on behalf of the towns with the local government ministry.
