TUNIS: Libya’s central bank governor Seddik Al-Kabir said he fled the country following “threats” from armed groups, amid tensions between rival administrations over the bank’s management, the Financial Times reported Friday.

“The head of the Libyan central bank who controls billions of dollars in oil revenue said he and other senior bank staff had been forced to flee the country to ‘protect our lives’ from potential attacks by armed militia,” the British newspaper reported. In a phone interview with the newspaper Kabir, whose location was not specified, said militias have been “threatening and terrifying bank staff” in attempts to push him out of office.

Tensions have been rising since early August when a group of men — some of whom were armed — laid siege to the bank demanding the removal of Kabir. On August 18, the bank announced it was suspending all operations following the abduction of its information technology chief. He was eventually released.

Days later an eastern-based administration in divided Libya said that an “outlaw group” close to UN-recognized government based in Tripoli had forcibly taken over the central bank. As a result the administration based in the eastern city of Benghazi said it was suspending operations across oil fields and terminals in areas under its jurisdiction. The locations affected constitute around 90 percent of the country’s oil fields and terminals.

The oil blockade has led daily production volumes to dwindle to around 600,000 barrels per day, almost by half, Libya’s Thursday by the National Oil Company said on Thursday. Kabir has faced criticism from people close to Dbeibah over the central bank’s management of oil resources and the state budget. Libya is struggling to recover from years of conflict after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi.

It remains divided between the UN-recognized government in the capital Tripoli led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and the rival administration in the east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar. Kabir told the Financial Times that a commission set up by the authorities in Tripoli had seized control over the bank, and he blamed Dbeibah for this “illegal” action. On Thursday, the bank, now under Tripoli-appointee interim governor Abdel Fattah Ghaffar, said its “main network has returned to work normally”. 

It said operations had “stopped as a result bank’s previous management had blocked and disrupted banking systems”. Earlier this week, Ghaffar said the interim management “reassured the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank of our commitment to respect national and international legislation”. On Friday the European Union called for a “negotiated solution” and the resumption of oil production, echoing similar calls by the United States and the United Nations. —AFP