BENGHAZI: A French engineer was shot dead in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Sunday, a medical source said, and France’s foreign minister demanded that the attackers be brought to justice.

The killing was the latest in a string of attacks and kidnappings targeting foreigners in the North African nation, which has been awash with guns since the 2011 uprising that toppled long-time dictator Muammar Qaddafi.

The source at Al-Jala hospital in the restive city of Benghazi said the 49-year-old Frenchman was hit by three bullets in the attack in the Abeida district. The victim worked for a company doing extension work at Benghazi Medical Center, where a source said he was with colleagues at the time of the attack.

French Foreign minister Laurent Fabius confirmed that an engineer named Patrice Real had been killed in Benghazi. He condemned the killing with the “utmost firmness,” calling it a “hateful and cowardly act.”

Fabius said in a statement that those responsible for the murder “must be found and punished as soon as possible.”

As near-daily attacks across Libya continue unchecked, the country’s justice ministry tweeted on Sunday that it was “deeply concerned” by the series of “assassinations that undermine the rebuilding of the new Libya.”

The ministry made another post on the microblogging website saying it “strongly condemns all types of kidnappings which violate the values of the Libyan people.”

It also called on “the Libyan people to unite together to protect their freedom, lives, and properties.”