Hommam Al Nassim 
A Tunisian soldier was killed today, Wednesday, when a military patrol operating in the Remada sector (south of the country near the border with Libya) was in the process of carrying out its normal duties in the buffer border zone at dawn on Wednesday, to sudden and unknown source of fire, according to a statement by the Ministry of National Defense.
The statement confirmed that “with the permission of the Public Prosecutor at the Military Court of First Instance in Sfax, an investigative investigation into the incident was opened.”
Tunisia is tightening its security measures on the border with Libya to combat the phenomenon of infiltration and smuggling, by establishing a military buffer zone. In 2015, a 250-kilometre-long buffer trench was dug on the border, in addition to strengthening the presence of various security wires, according to Anadolu.
Agence France-Presse said that Tunisian military forces are carrying out combing operations in mountainous areas to track down jihadists, as well as in desert areas near the Algerian and Libyan borders, to thwart the activities of smugglers. The border buffer zone was declared by the Tunisian authorities in 2013, following the growing phenomenon of the spread of armed jihadist groups in the country.
The crisis of migrants in the border area between Tunisia and Libya is still ongoing, amid international calls on the Tunisian authorities to stop expelling migrants towards the border with Libya.
On a separate level, the opening of the Ras Jadir border port between Libya and Tunisia was postponed for the third time, despite the outgoing head of the “National Unity Government”, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, on Monday, issuing his instructions on “the necessity of opening the coastal road linking the Zuwara border port and the Ras Jadir port and completing the procedures.” The opening of the port is in accordance with the government’s regulatory plan, and the implementation of the agreement signed between the Libyan Minister of the Interior, Imad Trabelsi, and the Tunisian Minister, Kamal al-Feki.”
The Ras Jedir government port has been closed by the authorities of the National Unity Government since last March 19, following major security tension between government forces and members of armed groups in the city of Zuwara, which has controlled and managed the port for years. The groups rejected the decisions of the Ministry of Interior to hand over the port and demanded that they participate in managing the port in When the ministry stressed that the port “must operate under the authority and legitimacy of the state,” it accused the militants controlling the port of being “an outlaw group.”
The United States is looking for new allies in Africa after its withdrawal from Niger