the artificial river project in the grip of attacks

The security situation in Libya is becoming more fragile, day by day. This weekend, a terrorist attack hit a hydraulic installation in the south-east of the country. According to a statement made public by the Board of Execution of the management of the project of the artificial river (OEGPRA, editor's note) which manages the installations, quoted by AFP, "terrorist groups" attacked the Tazerbo site … "looting, killing and terrorizing families, children and employees." The body deplores the murders of two of its employees, including an engineer and a security guard, as well as the kidnapping of two other employees.

The Tazerbo site is located 1,500 km southeast of the Libyan capital, Tripoli and is part of "Project of the Artificial River" . This is a network of giant pipelines that leads water aquifers from the desert to coastal towns and dates back to the time of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Escalation of violence

This is the second attack in 24 hours on project sites in Libya. The day before the attack on the Tazerbo site, another site located 1,000 km south of Tripoli and part of the same project, had undergone an identical attack, with the assessment of the kidnapping of three Filipino engineers and a South Korean. But to date, neither attack has been claimed.

Since the fall of the Gaddafi regime, Libya has been exposed to violence of all kinds. Foreign workers and diplomatic representations based in the country are constantly at risk, targeted by deadly attacks and kidnappings by jihadist groups like Daesh or powerful armed militias. Politically, two authorities run the country. In the East are the so-called "parallel" authorities loyal to Marshal Khalifa Haftar. In Tripoli, there is the National Union Government resulting from an agreement signed under the auspices of the United Nations and recognized by the international community.