CAIRO: Brushing aside all Egyptian protests, Libya was proceeding today [July 19] with plans for a peaceful invasion of Cairo in “a holy march that would tear down all reactionary boundaries” preventing immediate merger between the two countries. “The voice of the Popular Revolution”, Tripoli Radio, totally ignored a statement by the Egyptian A.S.U. State party to stop the marchers’ main body at Mersa Matruh.

More than 30,000 Libyans today pushed through the port city of Benghazi and headed for the Egyptian frontier. “The people are enthusiastic and determined to carry on the march to Cairo,” the Libyan news agency reported. Asked about Egyptian plans to stop the march at the coastal resort of Mersa Matruh, 120 miles inside Egypt, an agency official said: “We don’t know where Mersa Matruh is”.

At the frontier the Libyans, rolling along in a convoy of shiny new cars and commandeered buses were expected to ... sweep away barbed wire obstructions to symbolise the unity they demanded, Tripoli Radio said. At ... Benghazi, thousands more Libyan workers and students joined the convoy. Witnesses said the turnout was difficult to estimate but there were at least 1,000 vehicles. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2023