Fathi Bachagha, the Libyan Head of Government invested by Parliament in March, intended to dislodge the rival executive in place in the Libyan capital which categorically refuses to yield power before elections.
Le Monde with AFP
The Libyan Head of Government appointed by the Parliament, supported by the camp in eastern Marshal Khalifa Haftar, withdrew Tuesday, May 17 from the Tripoli capital after trying to dislodge the rival executive in place and triggered fights between rival armed groups.
These violence, of an unprecedented scale in Tripoli for almost two years and the failure, in June 2020, of the attempt by Marshal Haftar to seize it by force, are symptomatic of the chaos to which Libya is prey since the fall of the Mouammar Gaddafi regime, in 2011.
The fighting between rival militias began on the night of Monday to Tuesday after the Prime Minister’s arrival in Tripoli appointed by the Parliament sitting in the East, Fathi Bachagha, accompanied by several ministers from his team, according to a correspondent from the France-Presse agency on site, which has not been able to precisely identify the factions competing.
In the middle of the morning on Tuesday, after several hours of fighting, Mr. Bachagha’s press service announced in a statement that the latter and its ministers “left Tripoli to preserve the security (…) of citizens”. Mr. Bachagha, invested by Parliament in March, intended by this unexpected coup de force to take office in Tripoli despite the categorical refusal of the current executive led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah to cede power before elections. The ballot initially scheduled for December was postponed sine die.
In the Tripoli region, the two camps have the support of armed groups still very influential in the west of the country, but whose allegiances are moving. Al-Nawasi, an important militia of the capital, had notably praised the arrival of Mr. Bachagha, before her withdrawal.
For its part, the government sitting in Tripoli, born in early 2020 of a political process sponsored by the UN, did not react to the events that have occurred in recent hours. According to Libyan media, Mr. Bachagha’s departure of the capital was decided during a mediation led by a brigade of the loyal army to the government of Tripoli to end the fighting.
The Special Advisor of the UN Secretary General for Libya, Stephanie Williams, called on Twitter to the “restraint”, by insisting “on the absolute need to refrain from any provocative action”. “The United States is very concerned about information reporting armed in Tripoli. We are urging all armed groups to abstain from resorting to violence and political leaders to recognize that taking or keeping power by Violence will only harm the Libyan people, “said the American Embassy in Tripoli.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, mentioned a situation “which has become very serious in recent hours”. “We expected something as it happens, because in Libya we had no elections but we have two governments (…) and sooner or later, when there are two governments, they s ‘Confront, “he told Brussels.
In a video broadcast by local media, Mr. Bachagha, former Minister of the Interior, said early Tuesday that he was “very well received” in Tripoli, and announced the holding of a press conference in the evening during which he would make “a speech of unity to the Libyan people”.
Oil blockade
Since 2011, Libya, a country of seven million inhabitants, has been undermined by the divisions between competing institutions in the East and the West and by insecurity. Oil production, the main source of income in the country, is hostage to political divisions, with a wave of forced closings from petroleum sites in recent weeks.
Considered as close to the East Camp, the groups that cause blockages claimed the transfer of power from Mr. Bachagha as well as a better distribution of petroleum income.
Between 2014 and 2021, the country had already ended up with two rival governments. But it is no longer an east-west conflict, but an arrangement between key actors in the two regions. Mr. Bachagha himself being a heavyweight from western Libya, he has established alliances both with Marshal Khalifa Haftar as with the President of the Parliament installed in the East, Aguila Salah Issa, in the name of national reconciliation.