DHAKA: Unidentified gunmen have kidnapped a Tunisian diplomat in Tripoli, Tunisia’s foreign minister said, one of a string of diplomatic abductions in the Libyan capital this year.

Three years after Libya’s revolt to topple Muammar Gaddafi, the North African country is struggling to impose security in the face of brigades of former rebels, Islamist militants and ex-fighters who refuse to disarm.

‘A Tunisian diplomat was kidnapped in Tripoli, the Tunisian ambassador told me that his car was found empty,’ Tunisia foreign minister Mongi Hamdi told the local radio station Shems FM, reports The Jerusalem Post.

No further details about the abduction or the victim were immediately available. But the minister urged Libyan authorities to protect members of its diplomatic mission.

BDST: 1505 HRS, MAR 23, 2014