Tunisia calls for UN help to manage border with Libya, organize elections

During his meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday in Deauville, France, Tunisian interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi called on the world body to help his country better manage the border with Libya, as well as organizing forthcoming elections, the state-run press agency TAP reported on Friday.

The meeting focused on the technical and financial assistance the United Nations is likely to provide Tunisia in preparing and managing the elections for the country's constituent assembly, TAP said.

Evoking the situation at the Tunisian border with Libya, Tunisia called on the United Nations and the international community to use part of the frozen Libyan assets to finance the supply of basic foodstuff to the Libyan people.

The Tunisian request also focused on the "catastrophic situation" of African refugees living in camps in southern Tunisia and the means to evacuate them to other countries, TAP said.

Since the Libyan crisis, some 420,000 refugees have transited through Tunisia, while 60,000 are still living there.

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