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By Ashraf Abdul Wahab.
Tripoli, 25 March 2013:
Egypt plans to organise goods trucks bound for Libya into convoys accompanied by the army and police to ensure safe passage to the border, according to an Egyptian government source.
The convoys will assemble at Alexandria and consist of as many as 100 vehicles. The first convoy, the source told the Libya Herald, will set out later this week. The trucks will be accompanied all the way to the frontier.
Cross border traffic has been subject to a number of disruptions and blockades in recent weeks.
In January, the Libyan government banned non-Libyans and non-Egyptians from driving across the border. It then closed the border in the run-up to the 17 February Revolution anniversary amid fears of saboteurs entering the country. But when it re-opened it was then blockaded on the Egyptian side for a fortnight by local protestors angry that visa rules had been changed and in future they would not longer be able to enter Libya freely.
Last week, it was reported that several hundred Egyptians who had been taken to the border and deported from Libya then blockaded the crossing, refusing to allow Libyan vehicles into Egypt and damaging those returning to Libya. [/restrict]
