(Tripoli) Fighting between militias from Friday to Saturday evening in Tripoli, against a backdrop of political chaos with two rival governments, left 32 dead and 159 injured, the Libyan Ministry of Health announced on Sunday, according to a new report .
Posted at 7:59
Calm returned to Tripoli on Sunday after clashes between armed groups in several neighborhoods of the Libyan capital.
Heavy gunfire and shelling rang out all Friday night, and all day Saturday until nightfall, in several parts of the capital.
Two governments have been vying for power since March: one based in Tripoli and led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah since 2021 and another led by Fathi Bachagha and supported by the camp of Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of the East.
PHOTO HAZEM AHMED, REUTERS
Casings in a street of Tripoli
The clashes ended in the defeat of Fathi Bachagha’s attempt to dislodge his rival’s government, according to media and experts.
Armed groups considered neutral in this political showdown, notably the al-Radaa Force (deterrence), sided with Mr. Dbeibah, playing a decisive role in the outcome of the fighting.
This is the second failed coup by Mr. Bachagha, former Minister of the Interior, to try to dislodge the executive of his rival.
The clashes have been on an unprecedented scale since the failure in June 2020 of Marshal Haftar’s attempt to conquer the capital militarily, at the height of the civil war following the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Libya was mired in a major political crisis at the end of Gaddafi’s rule with rivalries between major regions, power struggles and foreign interference.