Six hospitals in the capital were affected, on the night of Friday to Saturday, in fights that raise fears of a new war in Libya, already in the middle of chaos with two rival governments.
Le Monde with AFP
The fights, which broke out on the night of Friday to Saturday August 27 in Tripoli, left at least twelve dead and ninety-seven injured, the Libyan Ministry of Health announced. Six hospitals in the capital have been affected in these fights which fear a new war in Libya, already in the middle of chaos with two rival governments.
The confrontations between competing militias, with a light and heavy weapon, broke out in several districts of Tripoli (West) where bursts of fire and bombardments sounded all night. They extended on Saturday evening, winning new neighborhoods, noted a journalist from the France-Presse agency (AFP).
the service Ambulances and rescue reported, Saturday morning, “injured among civilians”. The clashes have caused significant damage, according to images broadcast on the Internet, showing calcined cars and screened balls of bullets or burnt down.
significant damage
These fights have been of unprecedented magnitude since the failure, in June 2020, of the attempt by Marshal Khalifa Haftar, strong man of the East, to militarily conquer the capital, at the height of the civil war having Following the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The government based in Tripoli has attributed responsibility for clashes to the camp of the rival government, supported by Mr. Haftar, even though “negotiations had to take place to avoid a bloodshed in the capital”. This government, led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah, accused Prime Minister Rival, Fathi Bachagha, provisionally based in Syrte (center), of “implementing her threats” to seize the city.
The media office of Mr. Bachagha accused the government of Tripoli of “clinging to power”, accusing him of being “illegitimate”. He also denied any negotiation with his rival for an agreement. Local media said that an alliance of pro-Bachagha militias has been on the way to the capital from Misrata, 200 kilometers further east, a city-coffee rivals.
tensions were exacerbated
Since his designation, in February, by the Parliament sitting in the East, Mr. Bachagha has tried, without success, to enter Tripoli to establish his authority, recently threatening to resort to force to achieve it. Mr. Dbeibah, at the head of a transitional government, has repeatedly assured that he would only give way to a elected government. “True”>
Tensions between armed groups faithful to one or the other of the two leaders have exacerbated themselves in recent months in Tripoli. On July 22, fighting had been sixteen people there, including civilians, and around fifty wounded.
The American Embassy in Tripoli said he was “very concerned”, while the UN mission in Libya called for “an immediate judgment of hostilities” by denouncing “clashes (…) in populated neighborhoods of civilians “. For its part, Qatar called “all parties to avoid the climbing and effusion of blood and to settle disputes through dialogue”.
The government in place in Tripoli was born, in early 2020, from a process sponsored by the UN, with the main mission of the organization of elections last December, but they were postponed sine die because of strong divergences on the legal basis of elections. Libya sank into chaos after the uprising that led to the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011. In eleven years, the country of North Africa has seen a dozen governments, two civil wars, and never reached to organize a presidential election.