Tunisia’s Foreign Ministry says the last group of its nationals held hostage in Libya has been freed.

“All the Tunisians being held in Libya have been freed. The final group was released today,” the Tunisian Foreign Ministry announced, without mentioning the number of the hostages freed.

Tunis had announced earlier that it was pursuing the freedom of 172 of its nationals who were in custody of a militia force belonging to the Libya Dawn alliance in western Libya.

Last Monday, the head of the Arab and African affairs department of Tunisia’s Foreign Ministry, Touhami Abdouli, said the nationals were being held in Libya as a bargaining chip for the exchange of a Libyan commander held in Tunis. He added that his country was determined to resolve the crisis through a political channel.

Abdouli was quoted as saying, “I am optimistic.”

Meanwhile, Ibrahim Rezgui, the Tunisian consul in the Libyan capital, said the Tunisian government would release the detained Libyan commander if he was found to be innocent.

Libya is divided between two rivaling groups, one in Tripoli, where the Libya Dawn faction has set up its own government since the summer of 2014, and the other, which is internationally recognized, governing the cities of Bayda and Tobruk in the east.

Several rounds of peace talks supervised by the UN have failed to find any practical solution to the division.

Libya’s chaos began after the 2011 uprising in the country that led to the ouster and eventual death of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Heavily-armed militia groups now rule the oil-rich country.

XLS/HJL/HMV