By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 20 November 2013:
A six-man gang dressed in army uniforms stopped bank officials at a phoney roadblock, beat . . .[restrict]them up and robbed them of LD 1.5 million.
This is the third robbery this year to hit the North African Bank. The two-car convoy was unprotected because security guards had refused to work after a violent attack in Obari earlier this year. Staff have therefore closed branches in protest, demanding that they and the movement of cash be better protected.
The money stolen on Monday had been collected by staff at the Wadi Shatti branch of the North African Bank from the regional headquarters in Sebha. Customers in Wadi Shatti had been protesting that the branch had not had any cash for three days.
Abu Bakr Jibril the regional manager of NAB’s eight branches in the south of the country, told the Libya Herald that on the return journey the two cars ran into the roadblock. Thinking that it was manned by genuine soldiers, the Wadi Shatti manager, Abdulmenem Kashar is reported by local news agency Germa, to have explained that they were carrying the cash. He refused when the “soldiers” asked to see it, at which point they were forced out the cars at gunpoint and beaten up, while the money was transferred to the thieve’s vehicle. Before the robbers drove off, they shot up the bank cars.
Kashar was now in custody, and likely to remain there for six days explained Jibril, while police investigated the robbery. He commented: “Our bank staff sacrificed themselves to try and fix the problem of no cash in Wadi Shatti. Meanwhile the security guards, who should be guarding them, wont take responsibility, while the criminals are free.”
NAB is not alone in facing the challenge of moving large sums of money through remote areas. For the last four months, said Jibril, the bank had been sharing with the National Commercial Bank the cost of a helicopter to move cash from Tripoli to Ghat. Bank employees have gone on strike before after robberies and their action has appeared to be supported by sympathetic local managers.
The robbers have not however had it all their own way. A month ago, members of Obari’s Battalion 206 foiled the attempted robbery of a car carrying LD 3 million on the road between Sebha and Obari. Two soldiers were injured in a firefight but the attackers fled empty-handed.
With contributions from Aimen Eljali and Seraj Essul.
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