The eastern government of Libya is looking into a lawmaker’s disappearance

The interior ministry of the area stated that the authorities in eastern Libya are looking into the disappearance of a member of parliament and do not think he was killed.

The ministry’s media manager sent a statement on Friday night stating that Ibrahim Aldrasi, the House of Representatives (HoR) member for Benghazi, is missing following a robbery at his residence.

The Osama Hamad government, which is in opposition to the internationally acknowledged government in Tripoli, announced that it has initiated “immediate steps to investigate this incident”.

“The ministry of interior also strongly denies the news being circulated about his (Aldrasi’s) killing,” added the statement.

HoR member Siham Sergewa and her spouse were kidnapped from their Benghazi house in July 2019. The United Nations mission in Libya has demanded their release, but they are both still unaccounted for.

The HoR and Hamad’s government, which is linked to Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army, are based in Benghazi, the country’s second-largest city.

2014 saw the division of Libya due to a civil conflict between opposing governments in the east and west, leading to the election of the HoR.

After Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in an uprising supported by NATO in 2011, Libya plunged into a state of security instability.