Libya’s Berber demand language recognition

The Tuareg Social Council has demanded that Libya’s constitution-drafting body should include Berber as one of the country’s official languages, Anadolu has reported. The demand was made during the council’s meeting in Bayda city, in the east of Libya.

The council has also called for a review of the constitutional articles which have defined Libyan nationality since the 1969 revolution. Its members believe that they are damaging to social cohesion. The body drafting the new constitution should review the name of the state and its administrative system as well, said the Tuareg group.

Berber tribes, locally known as Amazigh, are indigenous to North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They speak their own language, which has a multiplicity of local dialects.

Libya’s constitution-drafting body consists of 60 elected members who represent the country’s three main regions: Tripoli, Fezzan in the south and Cyrenaica in the east. The body, which enjoys administrative and financial independence, is scheduled to submit its first draft in December this year.