On 30 October, Presidential Council (PC) Deputy Abdullah al-Lafi accompanied by Libyan Army Deputy Chief of Staff (CoS) Salaheddin al-Namroush visited Yefren to assess the situation and to discuss the recent devel opments in this city. This comes after days of protests by Yefren residents against external armed groups moving into the city and the subsequent detention of some of these protestors.
Al-Lafi and al-Namroush were received in Yefren by the mayor, members of the municipality council, the city’s nobles & elders and several leaders of the local security and military forces. According to the media office of the PC, the meeting reviewed the general situation in Yefren, especially the security situation, in light of the tensions that the city has witnessed in recent days.
During the meeting, it was agreed to form a team of notables from the mountains and the coastal region under the auspices of al-Lafi to communicate with the parties concerned with the protests. The aim is to get the arrested protesters released and to prevent any further arrests of people peacefully demonstrating. Al-Lafi emphasized that the legitimate platform for communication within any munic ipality is the municipal council. No other party is considered legitimate by the administrative and military apparatus. Al-Lafi called for a meeting between the mayors of the Western Mountain municipal ities, Minister of Local Government al-Din al-Sadiq al-Toumi, and Minister of the Interior Emad Trabelsi (who is a Zintani) to end this crisis and come up with consensual decisions that achieve the desired goal of achieving security within all municipalities of the region.
Al-Namroush said that the PC and the Libyan Army does not recognize any kind of ‘auxiliary forces’, but only military units within the military hierarchy. He said this justifies their presence within the cities while some control mechanisms are imposed.
The representatives of Yefren emphasized that they reject any military presence in their city that may cause trouble, especially as those present in the city have multiple affiliations which make it difficult to deal with them, stressing this is unacceptable. They stated that they are surprised that the Government of National Unity (GNU) has not showed an interest in the developments in Yefren, neither the PM nor the Minister of Local Gov ernment.
At the end of the visit, al-Lafi concluded that the role played by all components in Yefren in preserving peace deserves praise and appreciation, saying they have proven that they are capable and act re sponsibly to overcome any challenge they face.
On 31 October, Yefren Municipal Council member Saeed Buqsaya underlined that during the meeting with al-Lafi and al-Namroush the ‘people of Yefren’ expressed their rejection of the presence of any armed formations inside the city.
On 4 November, the mayor of Yefren announced that one of the city’s dignitaries was ‘kidnapped’ that morning by the Security Directorate in the context of the protests in the recent days against the armed formations.