By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 27 September 2017:
The mayor of a small southern town which has been a focus of terrorist movements has quit in protest at what he says is a lack of government support.
Hassan Matug, mayor of Gurdah Al-Shatti, 70 kilometres north of Sebha, said that he was resigning because he and his fellow councillors did not have the resources to provided even basic services.
The town’s difficulties have been compounded by local terrorist activity. In November 2016 an airstrike by unidentified warplanes killed at least seven foreigners suspected to be members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). However the presumed target top AQIM commander Abdulrahman Talha was seen walking around unharmed after the attack.
In February, around 60 prisoners, many of them suspected Islamists, staged a mass break-out from the local police prison.
This July the government in Beida sought to beef up local security by appointing Colonel Abdulqader Abu Al-Qasim Al-Bakush as head of the security directorate. The area around the town is now said to be under the control of forces linked to the Libyan National Army (LNA).
But the heightened security coupled with lack of central support for basic services have left Gurdah struggling to cope. Matug said he was giving up because he simply had neither the money nor the resources to make any improvements.
