Libya: parallel government announces its entry to Tripoli

Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah refuses to fade before Fathi Bachagha, his successor designated by Parliament. Clashes between armed groups broke out in the capital.

Le Monde with AFP

The Libyan government appointed by Parliament announced, in the night of Monday, 16 to Tuesday, May 17, its entry into the Tripoli capital, seat of rival executive power, which refuses to give in the reins.

The press service of this government supported by Marshal Khalifa Haftar announced in a statement “the arrival of the Prime Minister of the Libyan government, Mr. Fathi Bachagha, accompanied by several ministers, in the Tripoli capital, to start his work “. Clashes between armed groups broke out in Tripoli shortly after entering, noted a journalist from the France-Presse agency (AFP).

In February, the Parliament sitting in the East had appointed, Fathi Bachagha, former Minister of the Interior, as a new Prime Minister. But the latter had so far failed to oust the executive in place in Tripoli, led by the businessman Abdelhamid Dbeibah, who has repeatedly affirmed that he would only put the power back to a elected government.

A deciduous mandate according to political rivals

The government of Abdelhamid Dbeibah was born in early 2020 from a political process sponsored by the United Nations (UN), with the organization of legislative and presidential elections, initially scheduled for last December, but postponed sine sine die. His political rivals believe that his mandate has ended with this postponement.

undermined by the divisions between competing institutions in the east and the west, Libya is struggling to extricate more than a decade of political chaos and conflicts following the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, In the wake of Arab Spring.

Oil production, the main source of income in the country, is again hostage of political divisions, with a wave of forced closures from petroleum sites.

/Media reports.