By Hadi Fornaji.
Tunis, 30 April 2017:
In a move indicating continuing difficulties with his interior ministry, Beida-based interim prime minister Abdullah Al-Thinni has appointed yet another acting head of ministry. The job has gone to Brigadier Hussein Abdullah Elabbar, who replaces Colonel Adel Abdul Aziz.
It is the seventh time Thinni has appointed an acting head of the ministry since becoming prime minister although, in Elabbar’s case, it is his second time in the job.
He was appointed last November after Thinni finally fired Al-Madani Al-Fakhri with whom he had had a difficult relationship – although not as tempestuous as with his first interior ministerial incumbent, Omar Sinki.
After a week in the job, however, Elabbar suddenly resigned.
It is not clear why he has now changed his mind.
Given the past history and the limitations on the job because almost all security in the east is, in fact, in the hands of Field Marshal Khalifa Hafter, there are concerns that Elabbar will not last long.
