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Tunisia to close consulate in Tripoli after hostage crisis

Xinhua, June 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Tunisian foreign minister Taieb Baccouche announced Friday that his government has decided to close its consulate in Tripoli, right after the 10 consulate staff kidnapped in Libya were freed.

According to Baccouche, the decision came after Libya's violation of its engagement to protect foreign diplomat staff. All of 23 Tunisian diplomat staff have left Libya Friday by a military plane, said Bacchouche.

On Friday morning, all Tunisian consulate staff kidnapped in Libya a week ago have been freed and are on their way back home, said the Tunisian Foreign Ministry.

The abducted officers at the consulate in the Libyan capital of Tripoli were held as hostages by a Libyan militia group last Saturday.

Three of them were freed earlier this week and the rest were released on Thursday, the Tunisian news agency TAP reported.

The motives behind the kidnapping are not clarified by officials from the two countries.

However, Libya's local media said the consulate staff were taken by Tripoli's Artillery and Missiles Brigade as Tunisian authorities refused to free one of its commanders arrested in Tunisia in May.

Libya suffers a security vacuum since the fall of former ruler Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. Since then, the country has been plagued with illegal arrests and detentions of foreigner nationals and diplomats by armed factions to pressure the government into complying with their demands.

The capital city of Tripoli fell to Libya Dawn last August. The Islamist militia established its own government to confront the internationally recognized one, currently in exile in the eastern town of Tobruk. The country is now deadlocked in a dogfight between the pro--secular army and Islamist militants.

Tunis has warned many times its nationals living and working in the conflict--ridden Libya, urging them to leave the country in case of potential threats to their security.

However, Tunisia is one of the few nations who still have a diplomatic mission in Tripoli. Yet relations between the two neighbors have grown rather tense as the Tunisian authorities worry that the continued chaos and flaring terrorism could spillover. Endit