Tunisia soldier killed in shooting attack on Libya border

Tunisian army takes security measurements at the Libyan border in a town close to the border with Libya, on 12 July 2020 [Yassine Gaidi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images]

A Tunisian soldier was killed in a shooting attack near the border with Libya, the country’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

A military patrol came under fire from an unknown source in the demilitarised border area in the south-eastern province of Tataouine, the Ministry said in a statement.

An investigation has been launched into the incident.

Tunisia has stepped up security measures along the porous border with Libya to combat trafficking and smuggling.

In 2015, a 250-kilometer-long buffer trench was dug along the border.

In 2013, Tunisia declared the southern border strip connecting it with Algeria and Libya a demilitarised zone, allowing entry only with authorised permits issued by the authorities.

The Tunisian-Libyan border spans approximately 500 kilometres, with only two land crossings: Ras Ajdir and Dehiba-Wazen.

READ: Libya postpones opening of Ras Ajdir border crossing with Tunisia

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.