The fighting only lasted about 24 hours, but is the worst in a year in Tripoli. On Monday August 14 and Tuesday August 15, violent clashes erupted between the 444 Brigade and the al-Radaa Force, two influential armed groups in the Libyan capital, where one of the two governments vying for power sits.
A total of 55 people died and 146 others were injured, according to a new report communicated on Wednesday by Malek Mersit, spokesperson for the Emergency Medical Center, to the Libya al-Ahrar channel. According to this center, 234 families and dozens of foreign doctors and nurses had to be extracted from areas south of Tripoli. Three field hospitals and around sixty ambulances were mobilized to rescue the wounded and evacuate civilians.
Commercial flights, temporarily diverted to Misrata, 200 km further east, were able to resume on Wednesday, according to Mitiga Airport, Tripoli’s only civilian airport.
It was the arrest, without explanation, of Colonel Mahmoued Hamza, commander of Brigade 444, by the al-Radaa Force, which was the trigger for the hostilities. Fighting with heavy weapons (rocket launchers and machine guns) ceased after the agreement of a ceasefire between the two camps, signed late Tuesday evening.
The “social council”, made up of notables and influential figures from Soug el-Joumaa, the stronghold of the al-Radaa Force southeast of Tripoli, reported an agreement with Abdelhamid Dbeibah, the head of government sitting in Tripoli, to transfer Colonel Hamza to a “neutral party”. According to local media, he was at the headquarters of the “Stability Support Authority”, another influential group.
At the end of May, fighting between these two groups, even in crowded streets in the city center, had injured people. In July and August 2022, around 50 people died in clashes between the al-Radaa Force and other groups in Tripoli.
The oil-rich North African country has been embroiled in security chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, fueled by a proliferation of factions with shifting allegiances.
Accompanied by his Interior Minister, Imed Trabelsi, Abdelhamid Dbeibah went overnight to Ain Zara, one of the most affected areas, in the southern suburbs of Tripoli. Walking through streets plunged into darkness, he gave instructions to “clear the debris” and identify the “material damage in order to compensate the citizens”, according to the government.
The Ministry of the Interior has put in place a security device to oversee the ceasefire by deploying forces in the tense areas.
But for Libya specialist Jalel Harchaoui, “whatever happens next, the last three years have been wasted” by diplomats, peace mediators and policymakers. According to him, “Tripoli is a territory even more dominated by militias than before” and even if “Dbeibah remains in power, events show that he does not control” the situation.
The analyst explained the fighting as a “struggle between militias” for control of the territory, particularly in view of the upcoming reopening of the international airport south of Tripoli, which has been closed for ten years.
Libya is ruled by two rival governments: that of Abdelhamid Dbeibah in Tripoli, recognized by the UN, and another in the East, supported by the powerful Marshal Khalifa Haftar. The UN mission in Libya has appealed to “preserve the progress made in recent years on the security front”, an exhortation echoed by Western embassies.
Brigade 444, based in southern Tripoli, reports to the Ministry of Defense and is considered the most disciplined of the armed groups in western Libya. The al-Radaa Force claims to be independent of the government, controls the center and east of Tripoli as well as Mitiga airport and a prison.
