Libya–Tunisia border

France and the Ottomans

France made Tunisia a protectorate in 1881, while western Libya remained the Ottoman province of Tripoli. Agreements in 1886 and 1892 defined part of the line, and a Franco-Turkish convention signed in Tripoli on 19 May 1910 set the present boundary, which a joint commission marked with pillars in 1910–11. It runs from Ras Ajdir along salt flats, watersheds and rocky crests, mostly in short straight segments between pillars; the convention even shared out wells along the way. Italy took Tripoli in 1911, Libya became independent on 24 December 1951, and Tunisia on 20 March 1956.^[1]

“The boundary between the Regency of Tunis and the Vilayet of Tripoli shall start at Ras Adjedir, on the Mediterranean”^[1]

Ras Jedir

Since the border was set in 1910, legal and illegal trade through Ras Jedir has been the lifeblood of the Tunisian town of Ben Guerdane. Goods shipped to Libyan ports to avoid Tunisian import duties are trucked across, and in March 2024 Libya’s interior minister, Imad Trabelsi, called the crossing “one of the largest smuggling hubs in the world”. In 2016 ISIL fighters attacked Ben Guerdane and were repelled by Tunisian forces.^[2]

In March 2024 fighting between Amazigh forces from Zuwara, which had largely controlled the Libyan side since 2011, and forces of Tripoli’s interior ministry shut the crossing, and Ben Guerdane’s markets fell silent.^[2] It reopened on 1 July 2024 after more than 100 days, with a new official police force on the Libyan side.^[3]