Tripoli, 16 December:
Benghazi’s police training institute has been overwhelmed by the number of applications from members of the city’s Supreme Security . . .[restrict]Committee (SSC) hoping to join the police.
In the space of just two days from 12 until 14 December, the institute received over 1,500 applications from SSC members.
Benghazi’s SSC is currently in contact with the Ministry of Interior about the possibility of accepting more applications from its members to receive training, sources at the institute said.
Initially intended as an interim security organisation, the SSC has expanded into one of the most powerful armed groups in Libya over the past 12 months, with more than 130,000 men on its books. SSC Tripoli head Hisham Bishar recently told this paper that plans are underway to wind the organisation up by the end of this year and transfer all its members into other security agencies.
This deadline looks optimistic, however, with Prime Minister Ali Zeidan telling the Libya Herald on Friday that the SSC would “continue for some time”. [/restrict]
