Kufra International Airport announced yesterday that indeed it had started maintenance work after pre-announcing its temporary closure last Thursday 15 January ‘‘for a period of one month, to conduct comprehensive maintenance work on the runway’’.

Kufra is located deep in the southeastern Libyan desert corner near the Egyptian, Sudanese and Chadian borders and 1,030 km south of Benghazi and 1,718 km of Tripoli. It is under the control of the Hafter regime based in Benghazi.

The airport closure statement continued: ‘‘This measure is taken to ensure air safety and improve the airport’s infrastructure, guaranteeing its readiness to receive flights according to approved standards.

Therefore, the airport management urges everyone to take note of this temporary closure and make the necessary arrangements until the official NOTAMs (Notices of Operation) regarding the closure are issued by the relevant authorities, which will be announced as soon as they are released.

The airport management will also announce the reopening date of the airport upon completion of the maintenance work through its official page and approved communication channels.’’

Yesterday, the airport said ‘‘it had commenced runway scraping and maintenance work and that this work, being carried out by the Trade and Development Company, is part of a plan aimed at increasing runway efficiency and improving operational safety in accordance with approved standards.

This work reflects the airport administration’s commitment to developing the facility’s infrastructure and addressing technical issues to ensure the runway’s readiness to receive flights efficiently and safely.’’

It will be recalled that the closure announcement had been met with much scepticism as to the real motives and drivers of the closure in view of the airport being linked and implicated in acting as a transshipment base of arms for the Sudanese civil war by the Hafter regime.

It is still unclear, however, if the start of actual maintenance work on the airport vindicates or reinforces the accusations against the airport.