A member of the High Council of State (HCS), Saad bin Sherada stated that it was not acceptable for Libyan PM, Abdel-Hamid Dbaiba to not pay the salaries of military personnel in the east of the country.
“Deliberately stopping the payment of military salaries in the east confuses the scene to a large extent,” Ben Sherada said. He stressed that “there is a need for a real national unity government that can solve the current problems.”
Earlier this month, the General Command of the Libyan National Army (LNA) stated that Prime Minister Dbaiba had suspended their salaries.
In a statement, it said that the Libyan PM had suspended the paycheques of LNA forces, “while he and his family spent 20 billion dinars on developing corruption, instead of working to improve the lives of citizens.”
The statement added that LNA forces are protecting the oil facilities, whose revenues amounted to 103 billion dinars in 2021, “despite that, the Libyan PM and his family rewarded us by cutting salaries.” It added that suspending the salaries means “cutting off half a million people, including soldiers’ families, and their children from their lives.”
“We found ourselves obliged to borrow to meet for the soldiers’ daily needs,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, several tribes warned the government that they would halt oil exports if they did not pay the salaries of the LNA.
The tribes in the cities of Sidra and Ras Lanuf, said in a statement that they would take escalatory steps if the government did not respond to their “legitimate” demands.
They noted that they are giving the Libyan PM, a deadline to pay the salaries, “otherwise, the export of oil from their areas will be stopped.”