Army sets up new checkpoint between Jalu and Kufra
Tripoli, 30 December:

Security personnel and troops from the national army have been preparing a new checkpoint, Kilometre 200, on the road between Kufra and Jalu, Libyan news agency LANA reported today.

Abdullah Ben Idriss, of the Jalu Journalists’ Association, told LANA that the army had worked together with the local council in Jalu to set up the new checkpoint, which is part of increased efforts to prevent smuggling in the area.
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Die Schließung und Militarisierung der libyschen Südgrenzen erfolgte handstreichartig. Eine neue Machtpolitik entsteht in Libyen – jenseits der sichtbaren staatlichen Institutionen. Der Atlantic Council publiziert:
The Troublesome Politics Behind Libya’s Southern Militarization
Karim Mezran | December 21, 2012
http://www.acus.org/viewpoint/troublesome-politics-behind-libya%E2%80%99s-southern-militarization
This past Sunday Libya’s legislative assembly, the General National Congress (GNC), made perhaps its boldest announcement to date: to seal off the southern border, declare the area a military zone, and appoint a military governor with full authority to arrest wanted criminals. Libya’s south has been plagued by drug smuggling, human and arms trafficking, and general lawlessness since the days of Qaddafi. This measure, from a security standpoint at least, would seem to be a much-needed initiative from what has been an otherwise feckless GNC. The politics behind this hastily reached decision, however, run deeper than immediate security concerns alone, and reveal a potentially dangerous crisis brewing in which individuals are taking advantage of institutional weaknesses to assert their control.
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