Fighting, with heavy and light weapons, broke out overnight in several neighborhoods of Tripoli (west), against a backdrop of political chaos with two rival governments.
Bursts of weapons and explosions rang out all night and the fighting continued Saturday at midday, according to an AFP journalist.
The Tripoli-based government blamed the clashes on the rival government camp, even as “negotiations needed to take place to avoid bloodshed in the capital”, he said in a statement.
The spokesman for the Ambulance and Rescue Service in Tripoli, Osama Ali, reported “civilian injuries” without being able to give figures.
– “Threat” –
The local press claimed that civilians were also killed, but no official toll has yet been published.
The Libyan news agency Lana, however, announced the death of actor Mustapha Baraka who was in one of the neighborhoods at the heart of the fighting. His death aroused great emotion on social networks where he regularly posted videos.
The clashes caused extensive damage in the heart of the capital, according to images posted on the internet, showing charred cars and buildings riddled with bullets. A mosque and a private clinic caught fire, according to these images.
The Tripoli-based government, led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah, has accused rival Prime Minister Fathi Bachagha, who is in central Sirte, of “following through on his threats” to take over the city.
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 to achieve this. He did not react immediately to the accusations from Tripoli.
Mr. Bachagha is backed by the powerful Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, a strongman in eastern Libya, whose forces had tried to conquer the capital in 2019.
Mr. Dbeibah, at the head of a transitional government, affirms that he will hand over power only to an elected government.
– “Concerned” –
Tensions between armed groups loyal to one or other of the rival leaders have been exacerbated in recent months in Tripoli. On July 22, fighting left 16 people dead, including civilians, and around 50 injured.
“The United States is very concerned about the violent clashes in Tripoli,” the US Embassy in Libya said.
The UN mission in Libya also said it was “deeply concerned” by the “clashes (…) in neighborhoods populated by civilians”, calling for “an immediate cessation of hostilities”.
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.
Libya descended into chaos after the uprising that led to the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011. In eleven years, the North African country has seen a dozen governments pass, two civil wars and has never managed to to organize a presidential election.
