The President of the High Council of State (HCS), Abdulrahman Al-Suwaheli, has met with the Social Council of Murzuk Basin in the presence of a number of HCS members for the South to discuss the difficult and deteriorating conditions in the south. During the meeting, Al-Suwaheli vowed to push the government to address the crises of the southern region, insisting on the need to rehabilitate and develop the University and the General Hospital of Sabha in order to provide the appropriate services to citizens in all the neighbouring regions in southern Libya. The Social Council called on the HCS to help improve the services and security conditions in the region, which implies the necessity of supporting state institutions in the south in order to carry out its functions.

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Chief of Derna Security, Yahya Al-Osta Omar, has confirmed the shelling of the city indiscriminately by Dignity Operation militias for the second consecutive day, noting that the shelling did not result in any casualties. Dignity Operation militias have announced, in the past few days, that their forces are preparing themselves to storm the city of Derna, warning civilians to stay away from the military positions that could be targeted. In a press statement, Al-Osta Omar clarified that the bombing targeted the area of Hajjaj in the western entrance to the city, adding that Dignity militias are trying to disrupt the population and get the city into chaos. He insisted that the situation in the city is stable and that schools and banks are open, denying any presence of terrorists as alleged by Dignity Operation militias.

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The Illegal Immigration Agency in Tripoli announced on Monday the repatriation of 72 illegal immigrants to Cameroon in coordination with the International Organization for Migration. On its Facebook page, The Agency pointed out that the migrants were sent back to their country via Mitiga international airport. An African Union official announced earlier the evacuation of some 13,000 African migrants from Libya over the past two months, stressing readiness to continue with the repatriation process, which aims to evacuate around 20 thousand migrants in the near term.

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Tripoli hosted the election of the first syndicate of Libyan universities in the presence of representatives of 20 Libyan universities. The election ceremony saw selecting Tripoli university’s chairman Essam Awidan as the Head of the syndicate, Benghazi university’s chairman Taher Al-Dersi as the first deputy head and Sabha university’s chairman Ahmeid Abdelsalam as the second deputy head. Benghazi university media office said the elections were held on February 01, with educators raising hopes that this step could resolve many obstacles faced by university staff.

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The Economist has ranked Libya 154 in its latest edition of Democracy Index 2017. According to the index entitled "Free speech under attack," Libya came in the 14th place in the Arab world, followed by Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Syria. The index is based on 5 criteria, which includes, the electoral process, civil liberties, the functioning of the government, pluralism, participation and political culture. The poor performance of the government has weakened the state of democracy in the country, where it only registered less than one point out of ten, according to the index.

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A meeting was held Monday under the chairmanship of the Minister of Transport, Milad Matouq, with the security and technical evaluation team of the ministry which visited the airports of Taminhint and Barak in the southern region. According to the team, Taminhint Airport could be reopened within a short period of time while Barak Airport is still suffering from critical problems that relate to air traffic, which need the capacities and time to resolve them before resuming normal operations at the airport.

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The Head of the High Council of State (HCS) Abdelrahman Al-Sweihli assured Tawergha displaced community that they will return to their city and the attempts to cause instability in their case “won’t make us lose the urge to achieve our aim.” Al-Sweihli said in a tweet that the HCS is committed to the agreement that says Tawergha IDPs must return home sfely. “We have never backed down from a decision we made and we did not issue a conflicting statement regarding the case.” The HCS’s head added. H also said that the Tawergha IDPs will return despite the media and political campaigns.

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The member of the House of Representatives (HoR) Mohammed Al-Abani said the HoR has become unable to make a change in the Libyan political scene, adding that the HoR is no exception to the expired councils in Libya. He told the press that the existence of the HoR has become a burden, complicating national reconciliation and solutions to the crisis. Al-Abani also added that the HoR expired on October 21, 2015, yet it extended for itself on October 06 of the same year and tied its expiration to new legislative authority, despite the fact that the constitutional declaration conditions extension to popular referendums.

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Benghazi traffic and licensing department called on the Interior Ministry’s officials at the Interim Government to devise practical steps to stop assaults on traffic police personnel in the city. Media office’s head Belgasim Al-Adoli said Tuesday that unknown persons kidnapped Monday a traffic policeman and beat him at the crossroad of Hadaek area in Benghazi while he was on duty. “The security personnel in the city found the traffic policeman and took him to the nearest health center.” He added. Benghazi has been hit by security vacuum with too many assaults on police stations and security personnel such as the recent attack on Mousa Al-Gabsi of Benghazi traffic and licensing department who got shot last January.

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