Libya’s Central Bank Crisis

(Reuters) – Libya’s central bank governor Sadiq al-Kabir stated that he and senior bank staff were compelled to leave the country to “protect our lives” from potential militia attacks, as reported by the Financial Times on Friday.

“Militias are threatening and terrifying bank staff, and are sometimes abducting their children and relatives to force them to go to work,” Kabir informed the newspaper via telephone.

He also remarked that the attempts by interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah to replace him were illegal and contravened U.N. negotiated accords regarding the control of the central bank.

The struggle over the control of the Central Bank of Libya adds another layer of instability to the nation, which is a significant oil producer divided between eastern and western factions, each supported by Turkey and Russia.

The U.N. Support Mission in Libya called earlier this week for the suspension of unilateral decisions, the lifting of force majeure on oil fields, the cessation of escalations and the use of force, and the protection of central bank employees.

(This story has been corrected to state ‘our’, not ‘out’, in paragraph 1).