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By Libya Herald reporter.
Tripoli, 23 September 2017:
Two members of a south Libyan delegation who were detained in Tripoli by the Rada Special Force three days ago continue to be held at its prison at Mitiga airport despite efforts by tribal leaders and others in the south to secure their release.
The two, Ali Abdullah Awhida from Sebha and a member of the Awlad Sulaiman tribe and Hama Mohamed Ahmed Teeti, who is Tuareg, were due to go to a workshop in Rome three days ago.
They were taken from a downtown Tripoli hotel after the delegation had earlier refused to leave following Rada’s alleged refusal to let two other members of the team – local government minister Bidad Gansu and labour minister Madi Al-Wardami – board their flight at Mitiga Airport.
Gansu is also a member of the Awlad Sulaiman while Wardami is a member of the Tebu community
Both Awhida and Teeti are military figures, having led militias in the south, in the case of Teeti, the Tuareg brigade in the Tayuri district of Sebha near the airport. Both, too, more recently joined in the Misratan Bunyan Marsous operation in Sirte.
It may be the Misratan connection that was the reason for their arrest – Rada’s leader Abdul Raouf Kara is permanently suspicious of Misrata. However, it is also being suggested that the two were taken by Rada amid suspicions that they may be linked to extremism. According to a member of the delegation that was supposed to go to Rome, a brother of Teeti was arrested recently by Rada on suspicion of having links to the so-called Islamic State and is still held at Mitiga.
As with the seizure last month of former prime minister Ali Zeidan who is also from the south, this latest arrest has angered and united normally rival southern groupings. As soon as it became known, there were threats from the south that if the two were not freed within 24 hours the Man-Made River water supply to Tripoli would be cut off – no idle threat given that it has been done before. They also said they would cut gas pipelines and set up a regional Fezzan government.
So far there have been no water or gas blockages or southern government, although Tuareg leaders in Sebha’s Tayuri district have since warned that the community would take action if the two were not immediately freed.
They did not say what the action would be.
One aspect of the affair that has particularly angered the delegation, the member says, is Rada’s refusal to publicly state that it has arrested the two.
