Tebu protestors in Kufra and Rebyana threaten local power station

By Libya Herald staff

Angry Tebu tribesmen from Kufra and Rebyana have been protesting for the third successive day at what they say is their marginalisation and neglect, first under the Qaddafi regime and now in Free Libya. If government demands for improvements are not met with 48 hours, they are threatening to disrupt power production at al-Sareer.

Kufra is now a divided town since fighting earlier this year between the Tebu and the Zwia majority, left 150 Tebu dead and more than 400 injured. A reconciliation committee from the Jebel Nafusa restored an uneasy peace. However, concentrated in the neighbourhoods of Hay Al-Shuri and Ghaderfi, the Tebu now find themselves separated from most basic services, including hospitals and banks, which are now in Zwia areas of the town, 5,000 of whose 70,000 inhabitants are Tebu.

Mohamed Seeda, the president of the protest committee and a Tebu civil society activist told the Libya Herald today that there were no Tebu members on the Kufra town council. He is leading a call for a separate council to be set up in Kufra, which will cover the Tebu minority.

A similar new administration, and budget, is wanted for Rebyana, a town of 4,000 people, almost all Tebu. Though 150 kilometres away, it is administered by Kufra. It has no mains electricity, fuel station, proper hospital nor school, said Seeda.

Along with the Amazigh who demand the constitutional recognition of the Amazigh language, the Tebus of Libya want their language to be recognised as well.

Seeda warned today:”If not agreement is not reached in the committee of sixty to guarantee our constitutional rights, then we will not take part in it. We were patient for 42 years and another two years after the Libyan Revolution and we will not end the sit-in until all of our demands are met”.

With contributions by Houda Mzioudet and Jamal Issa.

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