House of Representatives president Ageela Saleh has issued a decree setting up an authority to rebuild Benghazi. Called the Benghazi Works Committee, it is to be headed by interim prime minister Abdullah Al-Thinni, it includes the east’s governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Ali Al-Hibri, acting mayor of Benghazi Abdulrahman Elabbar and Major-General Abdul Razzaq Al-Nazhuri, the military governor from Derna to Ben Jawad.
The aim of the committee is to assess and approve the various projects, services and facilities needed to for the city’s reconstruction and development. iThese will then be handed to the various ministries and other authorities to implement. The committee is authorised will bring in any other specialists to help in planning.
A statement from Thinni’s office says that funding will be authorised and provided by the Central Bank of Libya (the eastern, parallel branch). It is not how this will work, though, since providing the facilities to rebuild Benghazi will run into billions – and the eastern CBL does not have access to Libya’s oil income.
Quite apart from the destruction wrought during the three-year battle to liberate Benghazi from the militants, the city suffered decades of neglect under Qaddafi rule. It needs a complete new sewerage system among many other infrastructural requirements.
A conference on Benghazi’s reconstruction is planned for January by the acting mayor Abdulrahman Elabbar, who has tasked former city prosecutor Aisha Yusuf, with its organisation. She is one of the city’s members of the HoR.
