Violent fighting in Libya opposed two influential armed groups between Monday and Tuesday, and left at least 27 dead and 106 injured in the suburbs of Tripoli, according to a provisional report from the Emergency Medical Center.
According to this center which manages relief in the west, 234 families and dozens of foreign doctors and nurses were able to be extracted from areas south of Tripoli, where the “Brigade 444” and the “Al-Radaa Force” clashed. .
Three field hospitals and around sixty ambulances were mobilized to rescue the wounded and evacuate civilians.
The fighting with heavy weapons and automatic weapons started after the arrest on Monday of Colonel Mahmoud Hamza, commander of Brigade 444, by the al-Radaa Force. No explanation was provided for his arrest.
Tuesday evening, the “social council”, made up of notables and influential personalities from Soug el-Joumaa, the stronghold of the al-Radaa Force southeast of Tripoli, announced an agreement with the head of government sitting in Tripoli, Abdelhamid Dbeibah, to transfer Colonel Hamza to a “neutral party”.
In a statement read on television, the council indicated that a ceasefire would follow, which allowed a return to calm overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday.
According to local media, Mr. Hamza was at the headquarters of the “Stability Support Authority” (SSA), another influential armed group in Tripoli.
Commercial flights, temporarily diverted to Misrata, 200 km further east, resumed on Wednesday morning, according to the media service of Mitiga airport, Tripoli’s only civilian airport.
Despite a return to normal activities in the capital, the tension remained palpable.
The two groups clashed from Monday evening until Tuesday evening in the south-eastern suburbs and indiscriminate shots hit inhabited areas.
The 444 Brigade and the al-Radaa Force are among the most powerful groups in Tripoli, home to one of the two governments vying for power in Libya.
The country has been plunged into security chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, fueled by a proliferation of factions with shifting allegiances.
Accompanied by his Minister of the Interior, Imed Trabelsi, Prime Minister Dbeibah went overnight to Ain Zara, one of the most affected areas, in the southern suburbs of Tripoli.
Walking through the dark streets of this district, Mr. Dbeibah gave instructions to “clear the debris” and identify the “material damage in order to compensate the citizens”, according to the media center of the government.
For its part, the Ministry of the Interior has put in place a security device to supervise the ceasefire by deploying forces in the tense sectors.
But for the specialist in Libya, Jalel Harchaoui, “whatever the sequence of events, the last three years have been lost” by diplomats and decision-makers.
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.
Libya is ruled by two rival governments: that of Mr. Dbeibah installed in Tripoli (west) recognized by the UN, the other in the East, supported by the powerful Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
On Tuesday, the UN mission in Libya as well as the American, British, French, Italian and European embassies called for “immediate de-escalation” and to “preserve the progress made in recent years on the security front”.
“After violent clashes in Tripoli, we see the usual platitudes and lamentations. Nothing will change until there are consequences” for those responsible, lamented Hanan Saleh, researcher at the NGO Human Rights Watch.
Brigade 444, based in the south of Tripoli, depends on the Ministry of Defense and is considered the most disciplined of the armed groups in the west.
The al-Radaa Force is a powerful militia that polices Tripoli. Claiming to be independent of the government, it controls central and eastern Tripoli as well as Mitiga airport and a prison.
At the end of May, fighting between the two groups, even in crowded streets in the city center, had caused minor injuries. In July and August 2022, clashes between al-Radaa and other groups caused around 50 deaths in Tripoli.
16/08/2023 13:43:53 – Tripoli (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
