Black smoke billows as fighting takes
place in the southern oasis city of Kufra, located in a triangle where the
borders of Egypt, Chad and Sudan meet, on June 12, 2012, as members of Libya's
Toubou minority and government forces clash’
Libya
has temporarily shut down its borders with its southern neighbors and declared
emergency law in seven southern regions citing mounting unrest there. This
comes as Tripoli struggles to bring
the entire country under its full control.
"The provinces of Ghadames, Ghat, Obari, Al-Shati,
Sebha, Murzuq and Kufra are considered as closed military zones to be ruled
under emergency law," the country’s National Assembly said in a
decree released by the official LANA news agency. The assembly ordered to
temporally close borders with Chad,
Niger, Sudan
and Algeria.
"Upsurge in violence and drug trafficking, and the
presence of armed groups that act with complete impunity," was cited
as the reason for the move by Assembly member Suad Ganurt, AFP reports.
She also said there was an "increase in the flow of
illegal immigrants in the expectation of eventual international military action
in Mali"
against Al Qaeda-linked rebels, who have seized much of the north of the
country.
The emergency law gives the defense ministry powers to
appoint a military governor authorized to arrest criminals and detain and
deport illegal immigrants in the affected areas.
The instability in the south comes as the central
authorities in Tripoli still
struggle to bring the whole country under complete control, following the
ousting of Gaddafi’s regime last year. With a conventional national army still
lacking in Libya,
many of its provinces effectively rule themselves.
Tripoli also
struggles with a separatist movement in the oil-rich east of the country.
Earlier this month over a thousand demonstrators rallied for autonomy in the
cradle of the last year’s uprising, Benghazi.
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