Libyan paramilitaries block oil ports and demand payment of wages

Libyan paramilitaries block the export of oil from the country at the ports. The troops, responsible for protecting the oil ports, demand that their wages be paid. According to Bloomberg news agency, a solution is being sought.

The blockade could jeopardize Libya’s oil export recovery. Production had risen from almost zero to over 1.2 million barrels of oil a day in recent months.

Libya has the largest oil reserves in Africa.

The distribution of oil revenues has been a major bone of contention in the chaotic struggle that has plagued the country since the fall of dictator Gaddafi in 2011.

It widens the contrasts between the Northeast, where most of the oil comes from, and the Northwest, where the capital is Tripoli.