By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 26 July 2017:
In the latest move in the ongoing row between the Beida-based interim government and Sudan, the Sudanese consulate in Kufra has been ordered to close and its staff given three days to leave the country.
The news was announced by both the interim government’s foreign ministry and the foreign ministry in Khartoum.
The Beida government says that Sudanese diplomats in Kufra have been working in a way “contrary to the status established by international conventions for the staff of diplomatic missions and consulates, which is in violation of Libyan national security”.
Sudan’s consul-general, Salah Ahmed Eid, was summoned to the interim government’s foreign ministry and told of the decision.
Its Kufra mission consists of its consul and eleven staff members.
Relations between the interim government and Sudan have been difficult from the moment the former had to quit Tripoli in mid-2014 when the Libya Dawn movement took over the city. The Thinni government accused Sudan of providing with arms to Libya Dawn, an accusation Khartoum denied. However, it accepted the Libya Dawn regime as Libya’s government until it switched to the Presidency Council last year.
Following the accusations by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt that Qatar has been supporting terrorism and Islamist militants, tensions have again grown, with LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari claiming that Sudan is part of a “triangle” of terrorism which includes Turkey and Qatar.
The Sudanese government, which has been regularly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, has hit back with counter claims that the Libyan National Army (LNA) has been with Darfuri rebels from Sudan.
Such groups have been particularly active in the Kufra area.
