Clashes between militias backed by Libya’s rival governments have killed at least 32 people and wounded 159 others, according to the country’s health ministry.
Fighting in Libya’s capital Tripoli on Saturday was the worst in two years and has raised fears that the country could slide back into fullscale war.
The health ministry said on Sunday that 32 people were killed in Saturday’s violence and 159 were injured, up from an earlier estimate by a ministry source of 23 dead and 87 wounded.
Among the fatalities was Mustafa Baraka, a comedian known for his social media videos mocking militias and corruption. Baraka died after being shot in the chest, emergency services spokesman Malek Merset said.
Merset said emergency services were still trying to evacuate the wounded and civilians trapped in the fighting, which broke out overnight and continued into Saturday evening.
The health ministry said 140 people had been injured while 64 families had to be evacuated from areas around the clashes. He said hospitals and medical centers in the capital were bombed and ambulance crews were barred from evacuating civilians, in acts that “amount to war crimes.”
Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina reported a cautious calm in Tripoli on Saturday evening. “Things have calmed down since the fighting started. But people here are still afraid that Libya could be on the brink of a fullscale conflict,” he said from the Libyan capital.
The power struggle in Libya has pitted the Tripolibased Government of National Unity (GNU) under Abdul Hamid Dbeibah against a rival administration under Fathi Bashagha that is backed by the easternbased parliament.
Dbeibah’s GNU, installed as part of a UNled peace process after a previous round of violence, said the latest clashes in Tripoli were sparked by Bashaghaaligned fighters firing on a convoy into the capital while other proBashagha units had gathered outside. the city.
He accused Bashagha of withdrawing from talks to resolve the crisis.
Bashagha’s attempt on Saturday to take over in Tripoli was his second attempt since May.
Bashagha, who is backed by Libya’s parliament and eastern military strongman Khalifa Haftar, says the GNU’s mandate has expired. But he has so far been unable to take office in Tripoli, as Dbeibah has insisted he will only hand over power to an elected government.
His administration said in a statement that it had never rejected talks and that its own proposals had been rejected by Dbeibah.
He did not directly respond to the claim that he was linked to the clashes.
Witnesses told the Reuters news agency that Bashaghaaligned forces tried to take territory in Tripoli from several directions on Saturday, but their main military convoy turned back to the coastal city of Misrata before reaching the capital .
Dbeibah later posted a video online showing him visiting fighters in the city after the fighting ended.
Turkey, which has a military presence around Tripoli and helped forces in the city fight off an assault in the east in 2020 with drone strikes, called for an immediate ceasefire and said “we continue to stand by our Libyan brothers”.
The US ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, said in a statement that Washington “condemns” the increase in violence and called for an “immediate ceasefire and UNfacilitated talks between the conflicting parties” .
Emadeddin Badi, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, warned that violence could escalate quickly.
“Urban warfare has its own logic, it is harmful to both civilian infrastructure and people, so even if it is not a long war, this conflict will be very destructive as we have already seen,” he told the AFP.
He added that the fighting could strengthen Haftar and those close to him.
“They will benefit from Libya’s western divisions and be in a better negotiating position once the dust settles.”
Tripoli’s municipal council blamed the ruling political class for the deteriorating situation in the capital and urged the international community to “protect civilians in Libya.”
“Civil society institutions in Tripoli strongly condemn the armed clashes in the city of Tripoli and hold the participating parties responsible for shedding civilian blood, intimidating security and destroying public and private property,” said Omar Weheba, an official from the city.
Libya has seen little peace since the 2011 NATObacked uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi and split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions, dragging down regional powers.