Armed Libyans Kidnap 100 Tunisians: Rights Group

Armed Libyans have kidnapped around 100 Tunisian workers near the western Libyan town of Zaouia, demanding the release of four Libyans held in neighbouring Tunisia, a Tunisian rights group said Tuesday.

• The Tunisian workers were taken hostage late Monday, Lassad Jamoussi of the Tunisian League for Human Rights told reporters.

• The abductions coincided with the kidnapping of another 80 Tunisians along the Tunisia-Libya border, according to the Tunisian foreign ministry’s consular affairs chief, Samir Jemai.

• Five Tunisian men were kidnapped in the same area on April 7 and released two days later.

• The border zone is plagued by unabtated violence and free-wheeling black-market trade and has seen a surge of arms trafficking since the Libyan uprising that overthrew Moammar Kadhafi’s regime in August last year.