The head of the military council in Kufra said on Wednesday that another four people were killed in renewed ethnic clashes in the town and ten others injured. Colonel Sulaiman said there had been yet another ceasefire between Kufra’s dominant Zway tribe and the minority Tebu residents but it had broken down.
The total figure of dead in the town is now put at 131.
The Tabu, who are found throughout Libya south of Sebha, had suffered years of oppression and discrimination under the Qaddafi regime and joined the revolution early on. As a result, the leader of their military brigde, Isa Abdul Majid, was tasked by the NTC with defending the borders with Chad and Sudan. However, it is claimed that he then used the position and income from smuggling to build up his on power base, recruiting fighters from Chad and Sudan’s Darfur region to back him.
A number of Sudanese and Chadian fighters have reportedly been captured in Kufra carrying large amounts of money and have been taken to Benghazi for questioning. [/restrict]
