779 new cases of Coronavirus were registered in Libya, according to the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC).
The NCDC announced in a statement on its official Facebook page that 299 new recoveries had been registered, in addition to 8 deaths due to COVID-19.
This brings the total number of the pandemic cases in Libya to 40,292, including 16,546 active cases, 23,130 recoveries, and 616 deaths.
A well-informed source told Sada Economic Newspaper that Head of the CBL Governor’s Office, Abd al-Latif al-Tunsi, was arrested according to an arrest warrant issued by the Attorney General.
Libyan Central Bank Governor Sadiq Al-Kabir called for an immediate resumption of oil operations to shore up the economy amid an unprecedented decline in monetary reserves.
“the general debt of the state reached a record high of 270% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)… Libyan oil revenues dropped dramatically from 53.2 billion dollars in 2012 to almost (Zero) 2020.” AL-Kabir said at a forum that centered around a discussion on Libya’s economic situation.
Al-Kabir added that Libya’s economic situation that should work immediately to increase oil output to reach 1.7 million barrels per day to cover the basic expenditures of the state.
“Shutting down the country’s oil operations repeatedly from 2013-2020 has generated about $180 billion in losses,” Al-Kabir said.
Al-Kabir warned of a financial collapse due to the increased general debt of the state, and of the suspension of oil production and exports, which he said would be catastrophic to the state amid the unprecedented decrease of CBL reserves and plummeting oil prices globally.
He also indicated that Libya should work immediately to increase oil output to reach 1.7 million barrels per day to cover the basic expenditures of the state.
The CBL governor remarked that the efforts of the CBL and Audit Bureau led to a decrease in 2020 monetary arrangements from 51 billion dinars proposed by the Ministry of Finance with 40 billion dinars deficit to 38.5 billion dinars – a decrease of 13 billion and deficit of 27 billion.
Delegations from the Libyan High State Council and the House of Representatives who took part in the second round of inter-Libyan dialogue in Bouznika stressed late Tuesday that the round ended with comprehensive agreements on the criteria and mechanisms for filling sovereignty positions, the Moroccan official news agency MAP reported.
Sovereign positions include: the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Head of the Audit Bureau, Head of the Administrative Control Authority, Head of the Anti-Corruption Authority, President and members of the High Electoral Commission, the President of the Supreme Court, and the Attorney General
The agreed criteria and mechanisms are provided for in Article 15 of the Skhirat Agreement, signed in Morocco in December 2015.
The Investigation Department of the Attorney General’s Office ordered the imprisonment of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Afriqiyah Airways, Mustafa Matoug, along with a number of officials, in connection with corruption cases, charging them with causing serious mishandling of public funds.
Yet another order was issued to arrest and imprison Fawzi Al-Ramalli, Director of the Africa Trade and Investment Company in the state of Mauritius, which is affiliated to the Libyan Aid Fund, accusing him of misusing funds entrusted to him on unspecified general purposes, other than that for which it was intended, notwithstanding the fact that he was discharged from his duties.
The Investigation Department also ordered the detention of the Head of Sahara Bank, Al-Mukhtar Branch, on serious charges of abuse of power, with the intention of assisting and benefitting others.
Three Libyans killed a Nigerian man by setting him on fire in Tripoli, the interior ministry said on Wednesday, in what a U.N. agency described as “another senseless crime against migrants in the country”.
The Tripoli-based interior ministry said in a statement it had arrested the three suspects in the case, adding that they had used petrol to set the victim on fire at a factory.
Federico Soda, Libya country chief for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), a U.N. migration agency, said those responsible must be held accountable.
“When Jamal al-Fallah tried to withdraw money from his bank in Benghazi, he was told no cash was available, the result of financial problems in eastern Libya aggravating a cash shortage that has hit the whole country.” Reuters reported.
With debts of tens of billions of dollars, and local banks suffering, according to the parallel central bank set up by authorities in Benghazi, eastern Libya faces a looming crisis.
Waiting outside Wahda bank with a few other people, Fallah said he had only turned up because it had recently said there would be money available.
“When we go to the bank they say there’s no liquidity,” said Fallah, adding that he manages to pay his daily bills by borrowing cash from the owner of a supermarket.
He did not receive any cash until a week later – his first receipt of his salary in months – and within an hour had paid most of it to his landlord, he said later by phone.
Once one of the richest countries in Africa thanks to oil exports, Libya has crumbled since its 2011 uprising, divided between rival governments in east and west, including institutions such as the central bank.
With debts of tens of billions of dollars, and local banks suffering, according to the parallel central bank set up by authorities in Benghazi, eastern Libya faces a looming crisis.
Waiting outside Wahda bank with a few other people, Fallah said he had only turned up because it had recently said there would be money available.
“When we go to the bank they say there’s no liquidity,” said Fallah, adding that he manages to pay his daily bills by borrowing cash from the owner of a supermarket.
He did not receive any cash until a week later – his first receipt of his salary in months – and within an hour had paid most of it to his landlord, he said later by phone.
With debts of tens of billions of dollars, and local banks suffering, according to the parallel central bank set up by authorities in Benghazi, eastern Libya faces a looming crisis.
Waiting outside Wahda bank with a few other people, Fallah said he had only turned up because it had recently said there would be money available.
“When we go to the bank they say there’s no liquidity,” said Fallah, adding that he manages to pay his daily bills by borrowing cash from the owner of a supermarket.
He did not receive any cash until a week later – his first receipt of his salary in months – and within an hour had paid most of it to his landlord, he said later by phone.
Once one of the richest countries in Africa thanks to oil exports, Libya has crumbled since its 2011 uprising, divided between rival governments in east and west, including institutions such as the central bank.
With debts of tens of billions of dollars, and local banks suffering, according to the parallel central bank set up by authorities in Benghazi, eastern Libya faces a looming crisis.
Waiting outside Wahda bank with a few other people, Fallah said he had only turned up because it had recently said there would be money available.
“When we go to the bank they say there’s no liquidity,” said Fallah, adding that he manages to pay his daily bills by borrowing cash from the owner of a supermarket.
He did not receive any cash until a week later – his first receipt of his salary in months – and within an hour had paid most of it to his landlord, he said later by phone.
Once one of the richest countries in Africa thanks to oil exports, Libya has crumbled since its 2011 uprising, divided between rival governments in east and west, including institutions such as the central bank.
The eastern central bank has financed Haftar’s war effort. It has raised money by selling treasury bonds to local banks which the central bank’s head of liquidity Ramzi Alagha said could exceed 40 billion dinars ($29 billion) so far.
It has also been importing dinars printed in Russia.
Tripoli cut off the breakaway eastern central bank from most clearing operations in 2014, adding to the problems facing commercial banks as two parallel financial systems emerged.
Some people in the east try to change to bank rivals to ensure continued access to salary payments.
People often use cheques instead of cash, but these sometimes bounce as banks try to control their own cashflows. One man who tried to buy land worth 30,000 dinars was told by the bank he would have to make three separate payments over a longer time instead of paying it all at once.
On Wednesday, the United Nations welcomed the understandings reached by the delegations of the Supreme Council of State and the Tobruk Parliament, after their meetings in the Moroccan city of Abozniqa.
The spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Stephane Dujarric, said at a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York, that we welcome the understandings that the two parties reached in the Moroccan city of Abozniqa, referring to the efforts made by the UN mission in Libya, to hold a Libyan political dialogue in the coming weeks.
It is worth noting that the two parties to the Moroccan Abozniqa dialogue reached, on Tuesday, understandings regarding the implementation of Article 15 of the Skhirat Agreement, signed on December 17, 2015, regarding the requirements and mechanism for appointing sovereign positions.
On Wednesday, the General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) said that the continued acts of theft, looting, and attacks against the electrical network, have caused additional losses to the company.
In its statement, the company added that these actions have increased significantly, and in multiple regions.
It stated that employees are still working on repairing distribution line that have been looted by criminal groups. These criminal groups often try to benefit from stealing copper wires and re-selling them on the black market.
The statement pointed out that these “irresponsible acts of theft” have led to entire neighbourhoods staying without electricity and their inhabitants being “plunged into darkness for long hours.”
GECOL explained that the latest of these attacks was the theft of 1,650 metres of 11kV cables at the Khallet Fares fuel line. Three poles there are also reported to have been destroyed.
Speaking in a televised interview with WTV channel and Tabadul Platform late on Tuesday, the Head of the economic committee in the House of Representatives (HOR), Mohamed Raied, considered that the briefing of Al-Siddiq Al-Kabir at the Tripoli-based House of Representatives did not bring to light new information as it included the same things mentioned previously in the Bank officials’ statements.
” It was expected that Al-Kabir would reveal new information or offer solutions to the current crisis that the banks and the banking sector in Libya are going through.”
Mohamed Raied explained that the questions addressed to the governor during the session focused on the need to unify the exchange rate, eliminate the parallel market and provide financial liquidity.
Meanwhile, Raied said he was happy about the arrival of Al-Kabir in order to provide a briefing at the Tripoli-based House of Representatives and appreciated this positive step, while aspiring to bring all the sides to the same table.
“During my intervention, I urged the need to move away not only from “putting a spoke in the wheel”, but also from the squabble and stubbornness policy… I also highlighted the need to focus on national’s interest and their problems.” He said.
The head of the economic committee stressed that the briefing should have focused on the Bank’s work and solving its problems.
” Unfortunately, most of them were talking about financial aspects… Better solutions were expected.’ He added.