Libya: militia kidnaps Tripoli cabinet minister, inter-militia rift widens

Armed men belonging to Revolutionaries of Tripoli, a militia group reportedly linked to the Interior Ministry of the Tripoli government, has kidnapped a member of this government, namely Mohamad al-Gaddar in charge of Planning.

The security and defence commission of the General National Congress (GNC) strongly condemned the kidnapping on Tuesday and asked for the quick release of the hostage.

Another militia supporting the Tripoli government indicated that the rogue Revolutionaries of Tripoli militia led by Haytham al-Tajouri also attacked the Tripoli government Prime Minister’s office.

According to press reports, the Revolutionaries of Tripoli had been dissolved by the Tripoli government which issued an arrest warrant against Tajouri.

Though the Tripoli government did not state the reason behind the minister’s abduction, reports say Tajouri’s men argued that the minister was involved in “corruption and was using the militia group leader’s name to frighten the ministry’s directors and employees.”

On Monday, the Political Committee of the GNC criticised the UN saying it does not understand why the UN Head Ban Ki-Moon maintains Bernardino Leon’s as mediator in the Libyan crisis.

The GNC committee held Ban Ki-Moon responsible for the Dialogue failure and said maintaining Leon as mediator, although his successor has been already appointed, will derail the process.

The committed said in a statement that Bernardino Leon has failed to reach a compromise between Libyan parties, and nonetheless persists to have rival parties sign a “flawed” draft that will lead to a total collapse of the dialogue process.

Leon has been maintained as Ban Ki-Moon’s Special Representative in Libya and has received support to continue his mediation efforts till the conclusion of the Dialogue process even though former head of UN’s largest peace keeping mission in Congo, Martin Kobler, will soon take over Leon’s position.