(Tripoli) Fighting between militias that erupted overnight from Friday to Saturday in Tripoli, against a backdrop of political chaos with two rival governments, left at least 23 dead and 140 injured, according to a new official report.
Posted at 11:58 a.m.
Updated at 5:20 p.m.
Clashes between competing militias erupted in several neighborhoods of Tripoli (west) where bursts of gunfire and shelling rang out all night and during the day on Saturday.
A precarious calm reigned over the city in the night from Saturday to Sunday. Tripoli’s head of government Abdelhamid Dbeibah then appeared in a video, surrounded by his guards, saluting fighters who sided with him.
These new clashes are on an unprecedented scale since the failure in June 2020 of the attempt by Marshal Khalifa Haftar, a strongman from the East, to conquer the capital militarily, at the height of the civil war following the fall of the Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011.
Six hospitals were affected by the strikes, announced the Minister of Health, who gave a new toll of 23 dead and 140 injured.
” Threat ”
The clashes caused extensive damage, according to an AFP journalist, who saw dozens of charred cars and buildings riddled with bullets or set on fire.
The streets of Tripoli were almost deserted throughout the day, while columns of greyish smoke rose in the sky.
The Tripoli-based government has accused rival Prime Minister Fathi Bachagha, temporarily based in Sirte (center) and supported by Mr. Haftar, of wanting to “carry out his threats” to seize the city.
Bachagha’s media office, in turn, accused the Tripoli government of “clinging to power” despite being “illegitimate” according to him.
“War in urban areas has its own logic, it is harmful to both civilian infrastructure and people, so even if it is not long, this conflict will be very destructive”, analyzed for AFP Emadeddin Badi , researcher at the Global Initiative think tank.
Since his appointment in February by the Parliament sitting in the East, Mr. Bachagha has been trying, without success, to enter Tripoli to establish his authority there, recently threatening to use force.
Mr. Dbeibah, at the head of a transitional government, has repeatedly assured that he would only cede power to a government that emerged from the ballot box.
“Concerned”
Tensions between armed groups loyal to one or the other of the two leaders have been exacerbated in recent months in Tripoli. Last month, fighting left 16 people dead, including civilians, and around 50 injured.
The American embassy in Tripoli said it was “very concerned”, while the UN mission in Libya called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities” denouncing “clashes […] in neighborhoods populated by civilians.
The government in place in Tripoli was born in early 2020 from a process sponsored by the UN, with the main mission of organizing elections last December, but postponed indefinitely due to strong differences on the legal basis of the polls and the presence of controversial candidates, including MM. Dbeibah, Bachagha and Haftar.
Libya descended into chaos after the uprising that brought down the Gaddafi regime in 2011.
In eleven years, the oil-rich but interference-ridden North African country has seen a dozen governments, two civil wars and has never managed to organize a presidential election.