On 15 August, the 444 Brigade announced that one of its detachments distributed more than 250,000 litres of fuel seized from smugglers in the middle of the desert free of charge to citizens travelling to the cities of the south. This comes after it claimed it had closed off all the smuggling routes to the south. Zintani leaders warned that the forces heading to the southern border (referring to the 444) intend to ‘expand and not fight smuggling’. They ‘categorically reject’ any movement of any armed groups through ‘Zintan territory’, calling on the security directorates to play their role in combating organized crime, such as drug and arms trafficking and human smuggling.
