The Central Bank of Libya said on Sunday it was “suspending all operations” after a bank official was abducted in the capital, Tripoli, in a statement posted on social media.
Musab Msallem, the head of information technology at the Central Bank, “was kidnapped by an unidentified group from his house this morning”, the statement said.
The bank said it would “not resume operations” until Msallem was released, adding that other executives had also been “threatened with abduction”. It 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”.
The bank provided no further details about the kidnapping.
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 US diplomat and special envoy for Libya, Richard Norland, said attempts to oust Kabir were “unacceptable”, warning that replacing him “by force can result in Libya losing access to international financial markets”.
Norland said in a post on the social media platform X that the confrontation in Tripoli “highlights the ongoing risks posed by the political stalemate in Libya”.
After the siege, the UN support mission in Libya said the bank played an important role in the country’s financial stability.
In office since 2012, Kabir has faced criticism over the management of Libya’s oil resources and the state budget, including from figures close to the prime minister, Abdulhamid Dbeibah.
Home to 6.8 million people, Libya has struggled to recover from years of conflict after the 2011 Nato-backed uprising that overthrew the longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
It remains divided between a UN-recognised government based in Tripoli and led by Dbeibah and a rival administration in the east, backed by the military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
Although relative calm has returned in recent years, clashes still periodically break out between Libya’s myriad armed groups. Sunday’s abduction came after a period in which fears have grown of a broader escalation.
Source: theguardian.com
