Hijacking of Libyan central bank highlights rivalry over oil wealth

After the kidnapping of one of its employees and an attempt by the rival government to remove its head, Libya’s Central Bank said on Monday it had resumed operations, as a battle intensifies for control of the financial institution that handles the country’s oil revenues.

Libya’s Presidential Council, controlled by rival government forces in Tripoli, is battling the rival government in the east – controlled by strongman General Khalifa Haftar – to install its own central bank governor. Tripoli tried to force out the eastern-aligned Central Bank governor Al-Siddiq Al-Kabir and replace him with Mohamed Shukri.

On Sunday, the Central Bank said it would halt all operations following the kidnapping earlier in the day of a senior bank official, vowing to keep its doors closed until the kidnap victim, the bank’s head of IT, was safely returned, saying that ” the bank rejects the mafia methods that are practiced by some parties outside the law”.

On Monday, operations resumed after the kidnapped employee was returned on Sunday evening, according to Libyan media reports.

In the past week, armed forces have gathered outside the headquarters of the Central Bank, raising concerns that the country could slip back into a state of civil war as eastern and western factions battle for control of oil.

Al-Kabir had strained relations with both governments; however, Libyan media indicate that the Prime Minister of Tripoli and head of the Government of National Unity (GNU), Abdul Hamid Al-Dbeibah, is strongly opposed to Al-Kabir and is trying to remove him by force.

The ongoing conflict that has led to the creation of two rival governments in Libya has focused on oil revenues, controlled by the western government in Tripoli, and oil production and exports, which are nominally controlled by forces in the east that have the potential to disrupt . production, as they have done in the past.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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