The forces also succeeded in opening roads closed since 2011 in the area.
The forces of the Libyan National Army in the south of the country are waging a brutal war against mercenaries and terrorists on the one hand, and to remove the encroachments on the highway on the other, according to what the media official of the Libyan city of Sabha, Osama Al-Wafi, told Sky News Arabia.“.
Al-Wafi added that the Libyan army restored the price of a liter of gasoline to its official price, because the fuel is subsidized by the state, and the region has been suffering from price instability for 8 years..
He attributed the lack of stability to the “prices that were controlled by the black market,” saying that they “exceed many times their value because of it, and their prices start from one and a half dinars per liter, and rise as we go deeper into Fezzan, so the price of a liter of gasoline ranges from 3 dinars in Murzuq to 6 Dinar in Ghat.
On how to solve the problem and restore discipline to the fuel market in Fezzan, Al-Wafi explained that the armed forces “resorted to open several stations to feed the city of Sebha, as well as to monitor the ports.”.
open roads
The army forces have also succeeded in the past few days in opening the closed roads since 2011, in coordination with the notables, the youth, and the commander of the military region in Sabha; To end a dispute that lasted 11 years, and traffic returns to normal.
The professor at the Faculty of Commerce and Political Science at Sebha University, the economic expert Bouzoum Al-Lafi, revealed to “Sky News Arabia”, part of what the Fezzan region has suffered in the past years, saying: “The absence of control over the markets led to great confusion, and some took advantage of the matter to establish too many unofficial stations.” While the official gas stations closed their doors..
He said, “A fleet of trucks worked to transport smuggled fuel from the north and east to the south, at very high prices ranging from 3000 to 5000 dinars for a single transfer. What made the matter more complicated, the appearance of fake gates that took royalties on each fuel truck, so the prices jumped even more.”
He continued, “The lack of cash flow from banks in the southern region most of the time, has burdened the citizen during the last 8 years, especially since Libya has its own composition, which is that most citizens are state employees, and therefore depend on government salaries.”.
The university professor was optimistic that the army’s intervention to control prices would stabilize the economic situation and revive it, even a little, in the south.
Wealth mortgaged to terrorism
Residents complain that Fezzan is rich in oil, yet its poor exploitation in providing services has caused unemployment to spread, even though it is the third city in Libya administratively, but in practice it is one of the places far from services and projects.
A few days ago, the National Army launched a large-scale military operation in the south of the country, its first in 2022, aimed at expelling terrorist organizations, drug gangs, smuggling and clandestine immigration, which take the region as a haven from which it spreads extremism and criminality in the rest of Libya, and disrupts the investment of its natural resources..
The south became more vulnerable to terrorists and mercenaries hiding; Because it shares borders with Chad and Sudan, with weak border controls; As a result of the violent turmoil that hit the country in recent years.