The Undersecretary of the Health Ministry of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Abdulrahman Omeir, was kidnapped on Monday in Tripoli by unidentified armed men.
Sources added that the assailants intercepted Omeir’s car and took him to an unknown location.
The health official was on his way to the Qasr bin Ghashir area, south of Tripoli, along with the Head of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Badr Al-Din Al-Najjar. The two health officials were on their way to launch an awareness campaign about the dangers linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Al-Najjar denied all media reports and social media rumours that he had been kidnapped alongside Abdulrahman Omeir. He later appeared in a video published by the NCDC, showing his participation in the awareness campaign.
Since the 2011 civil war, successive governments have failed to prevent the deterioration of the security situation across Libya, with kidnappings and at times murder being common, especially in Tripoli.