Tunisian consulate staff kidnapped in Libya return home
(Baonghean) - 10 Tunisian diplomats kidnapped by gunmen at the consulate in Libya a week ago were released and returned home safely on Friday, June 19.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, but in Libya's chaos, armed groups have kidnapped diplomats and foreign citizens to pressure the Libyan government to release Libyan fighters held in foreign prisons.
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| A police car parked in front of the Tunisian Consulate in Tripoli, Libya on June 13. |
Libya's two rival governments - one internationally recognised and the other a self-declared state - have been fighting each other on multiple fronts since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011.
Three of the 10 Tunisians were released shortly after negotiations between their kidnappers and Libya's self-proclaimed government. "They were released and arrived in Tunis on Friday," Tunisian Foreign Minister Taieb Bakouch told Reuters. He did not give details of the negotiations to free his staff.
The statement came after a Tunisian court ruled on Thursday that Walid Kalib could be extradited. Kalib is a member of the Libya Dawn faction and was arrested in Tunisia last month. Gunmen stormed the consulate in Tripoli after a Tunisian court refused to release him in an earlier ruling.
Tunisia has been one of the few countries with a diplomatic presence in Tripoli since Libya Dawn took over the capital and forced international recognition as the functioning government in the east.
UN negotiators are trying to broker a peace deal between the two factions and form a unity government to end a crisis that Western countries fear will create a fragile state across the Mediterranean from mainland Europe.
Phuong Thao
(According to Reuters June 19)
