A group of residents in the Tunisian border city of Bengardane organized protests on Saturday evening, demanding the opening of the border crossing of Ras Ajdair with Libya and finding development solutions for thousands of workers in inter-trade between Tunisia and Libya.
The protesters called on the authorities to intervene urgently and coordinate with the Libyan side to accelerate the resumption of their trade, which had been suspended since March 19, after the Libyan authorities closed the border.
The Head of the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights, Mustafa Abdelkabir, confirmed that the protesters were either traders working in intra-regional trade or workers in shops that supply goods to Libya, saying that “the continued closure of the border put them out of work and threatened their source of livelihood.”
The Libyan Ministry of Interior closed the Ras Ajdair border following what it described as outlaw groups’ attacks on the border’s facilities to create chaos.
Abdelkabir expected that the Ras Ajdair border would be reopened to the movement of individuals and goods in the coming days, after making the necessary arrangements by the Libyan side.
