TRIPOLI, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Foreign workers of Libya's southern Obari power plant on Saturday left Libya after the government failed to free four foreign workers kidnapped by unknown gunmen two weeks ago.
"All foreign workers, over 300 of different nationalities, have left the Obari power plant after government efforts to free the kidnapped foreign hostages failed," a member of the municipal council of Obari told Xinhua.
"All the efforts of the security services and the officials of the electricity company failed to persuade the Turkish company executing the project to continue and complete the final part of the project to solve the problem of the ongoing power breakout in Libya," the source added, who asked not to be named.
An unidentified armed group on Nov. 3 kidnapped four foreign workers, three Turks and one German, working at the power station of Obari, 1,100 km south of the Libyan capital Tripoli.
The kidnapping took place as the four workers arrived from the capital Tripoli on their way to the station site.
According to Abdullah Ibrahim, assistant commander of the Obari Oil Fields Guards, the armed group that abducted the workers managed to escape to the Algerian border with the abductees, before security services in the nearby city of Ghat arrested four gunmen involved in the kidnapping, without knowing the whereabouts of the hostages.
The construction of the power plant began in 2012, but was suspended in 2014 due to deteriorating security conditions in Libya, before the contractor ENKA Teknik resumed work in February.
