(Tripoli) “Fear”, “trauma” … the Libyan capital has been the scene in recent days of violent fighting between armed groups, killing more than 30 people and causing deep despondency in a population tired of chronic instability and a political crisis unending.
Posted at 1:29 p.m.
Calm seemed to reign Monday in Tripoli for the second day in a row. The shops have reopened, the municipal services have undertaken the clearing of the debris, technicians from the electric company are mobilized to restore electricity.
But the inhabitants are in shock after clashes of great intensity between rival militias, in the midst of civilians, which raged from Friday at dawn until Saturday evening.
Dozens of gutted buildings bear the scars of this bloody weekend (Friday and Saturday in Libya, editor’s note) where explosions and heavy gunfire resounded relentlessly in the four corners of the city.
“Real War”
“It was a real war,” says Manal (first name changed), a resident. “I was afraid for my family. My baby jumped in his sleep and woke up several times due to the shelling. I didn’t know when it was going to end,” adds this forties who “hesitates now to leave Tripoli for fear that it will resume.”
According to an official report, 32 people were killed and 159 injured, including an unknown number of civilians, as a result of a power struggle between two rival governments.
One is based in Tripoli (west) and led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah since the beginning of 2021, the other led since last March by Fathi Bachagha and supported by the camp of Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of the East.
“I closed the shutters, locked the doors and spent the night in a windowless hall where we took refuge to protect ourselves from possible explosion impacts,” continues Manal.
Fatma Mahmoud, a 37-year-old pharmacist, “woke up Sunday with a sigh of relief” after hearing the fighting had ended. “It’s over, until one of them (the armed groups) decides to encroach again on the territory of the other,” she says.
The two rival executives rejected Sunday the responsibility for the fights which opposed militias loyal to one or the other, in a context where changes of allegiance are frequent.
“People need to feel safe and it’s up to the government to impose its authority over the militias,” said Mohamad al-Nayli, a 33-year-old banker, who finally wants to see his city “pacified”.
“Coupled”
Eleven years after the death of Muammar Gaddafi, carried away by a revolt supported by a controversial international intervention under the aegis of NATO, the country is struggling to complete its transition to democracy.
Far from meeting the aspirations of the demonstrators, the 2011 revolt plunged the North African country into a spiral of violence and divisions between East and West, fueled by foreign interference.
Fatima Mahmoud deplores a situation which “tends to repeat itself even if this time it was much more violent”.
A month ago, fighting in Tripoli left 16 dead.
But the latest clashes have been on an unprecedented scale since the failure in June 2020 of an attempt by Marshal Haftar to conquer the capital militarily.
“Some have lost loved ones (in the last battles), others are picking up the bricks of what used to be their home, not to mention the traumas, children curled up in basements waiting for it to end,” says Fatima Mahmoud .
One sequence in particular sparked outrage. It shows two panicked children fleeing a combat zone, covering their ears.
“A 17-year-old boy was killed and four others were injured, including a five-year-old. Violations against children must stop,” Michele Servadei, UNICEF Representative in Libya, said on Twitter.
Mr. Dbeibah’s interim government is the result of a UN-sponsored peace process to unify the country. Its main mission was the organization of presidential and legislative elections scheduled for last December.
Libyans experienced further disillusionment with the postponement sine die of this crucial deadline, against a backdrop of persistent disagreements between rival camps.
Considering that Mr. Dbeibah’s term has expired, the eastern-based parliament in February appointed Mr. Bachagha as prime minister. However, Mr. Dbeibah only wants to give way to a government that has emerged from the ballot box.