Months into the closure of Tunisia’s main border crossing with Libya, a haven for smugglers, shops are shuttered and unemployment has soared in the already-marginalised desert region, merchants say.
Ras Jedir, in Tunisia’s south, is a major hub of informal trade between the two North African countries.
The crossing has been shut since March 19, following what Libyan media said were clashes between armed groups and security forces on the Libyan side.
Libya’s Interior Ministry said it ordered the post’s closure “after outlaw groups attacked the post to create chaos”.
It said the groups are involved in smuggling activities, which “they consider to be their right”.
More than three months later, Tunisian merchants in towns like Ben Guerdane, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of the border, are suffering.
“All shops are closed,” said Abdallah Chniter, 45, whose own store is among those that went out of business.
Mounir Gzam, head of a Tunisian-Libyan business association in the surrounding Medenine governate, said that since the closure of Ras Jedir, the region has experienced a “commercial stagnation affecting around 50,000 merchants and their families carrying out activities linked to the border post.”
Now, he said, “they are unemployed.”
Gzam called the crossing “the beating heart and lifeline” of the struggling region. Unemployment in southern Tunisia topped an average of 20 per cent last year, compared with the national average of 15.8 per cent.
Summertime tourism is also set for a blow as Libyans usually flock to Tunisia’s island of Djerba, north of Ben Guerdane, Gzam added.
Ben Guerdane hosts vast marketplaces of car and mechanical parts, household appliances and clothing, at times even supplying cities in the north.
But the most lucrative commodity is petrol, which is smuggled from Libya and sold at half the price found elsewhere in Tunisia.
Libyan authorities have many times announced the reopening of Ras Jedir, around 170 kilometres (105 miles) west of Tripoli, only to have it delayed. This confusion has only worsened the dismay of the local population in Ben Guerdane.
In 2023, about 3.4 million travellers from both countries crossed Ras Jedir, according to official Tunisian figures.