Libya’s central bank resumes operations after kidnapping of senior employee

Libya’s central bank has resumed normal operation after it was forced to suspend activities due to a kidnapping of one of its senior officials.

Head of the bank’s information technology department, Musaab Muslamm was abducted on Sunday by an “unidentified party,” in Tripoli, while other bank employees received threats of similar kidnappings.

The Bank resumed operations after the release of Muslamm and called for an “end to these practices” and blamed “unlawful parties” that “threaten the safety of its employees and the continuity of the banking sector’s work”.

Sunday’s abduction came a week after armed men laid siege to the central bank’s headquarters in Tripoli. Local media said this was an attempt to force the resignation of the bank’s governor, Seddik al-Kabir.

The central bank, which is independent but owned by the Libyan state, is the only internationally recognised depository for Libyan oil revenues – a vital economic income for a country torn for years between two rival governments in Tripoli and Benghazi.