Some 100 truck drivers and their vehicles seized by Libyan gunmen are still being held.

Tension is rising between Libya and Egypt following the shutdown of the Salloum border crossing after 100 Egyptian truck drivers and their vehicles were abducted on October 17, 2013 by Libyan gunmen and taken to the capital, Tripoli, Radio France Internationale, RFI reported yesterday, October 20, 2013.  

Egypt’s Daily News reported over the weekend that the authorities were holding talks with Libya to secure the release of the drivers whose number it put at just over 20. Egyptian Ambassador to Libya, Mohammed Abu Bakr, was quoted as saying that the government was in “intense contacts with Libyan authorities and several local chieftains to secure the release of the drivers kidnapped in the eastern city of Ajdabiya.”

Meanwhile, Egypt’s independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, published an interview on October 17, 2013 with a Libyan militia chief who claimed to have captured the drivers. Ahmed al-Libi said he was holding 50 of them and that their release was dependent on the freeing of Libyans arrested in Egypt. He warned that he will kill the hostages and kidnap more if Cairo failed to release the detained Libyans within 10 days.

According to Libya Herald newspaper, Egyptian diplomats on Saturday, October 19, 2013, set up a crisis centre at their Benghazi Consulate as confusion continued to reign as to who really kidnapped the drivers, their precise location and number. Earlier reports said the abductors were Islamists seeking the freedom of Libyan Moslem Brotherhood members, but other sources insisted that the kidnappers and those they want released in Egypt, were smugglers.

Since the overthrow of the late Libyan leader, Muammar Ghaddafi, in 2011, the over 1,000-km long border between Libya and Egypt has become more porous as a result of the chaos in Libya, RFI said. About a million Egyptians are believed to be living and working in the country.