TRIPOLI, Aug 28 (Reuters) – Charred cars and bulletriddled buildings marked Libya’s capital on Sunday, a day after heavy fighting killed 32 people but appeared to leave Tripoli’s government more firmly entrenched.
Fighting raged across the city on Saturday as forces aligned with the parliamentbacked administration of Fathi Bashagha failed to seize control of the capital and topple the government of Abdulhamid alDbeibah, with based in Tripoli.
During a tour of the city on Sunday, Reuters saw workers clearing glass and debris from streets littered with spent ammunition casings, while Dbeibahaligned fighters stood in front of bases seized from Bashaghaaffiliated forces.
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Traffic was backed up on many roads as residents inspected damage to their property.
Clashes broke out and ended abruptly. But the brief nature of the eruption has not allayed fears that a wider conflict between the rivals will resume after months of stagnation in a nation that has endured more than a decade of chaos and violence.
Libya has seen little peace since the 2011 NATObacked uprising that toppled autocrat Muammar Gaddafi, splitting the nation in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions and dragging regional powers down. Libya’s oil production, a prize for the warring groups, has been repeatedly shut down.
Bashagha’s prospects of seizing control in Tripoli, which is in western Libya, look very dim for now, but there are no signs of a wider political or diplomatic commitment to end the fighting for power in Libya. Read more
The powerful eastern faction that backed Bashagha, including Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh and Commander Khalifa Haftar with his Libyan National Army, have given little indication that they are ready to reach a deal with Dbeibah.
Saleh’s parliament, based in eastern Libya, said Dbeibah’s government had outlived its mandate and appointed Bashagha to replace him earlier this year after a political process collapsed to prepare for the elections. Dbeibah challenged this.
VOTE PLANS IN TATTERS
People gather next to burnt cars after yesterday’s clashes in Tripoli, Libya, August 28, 2022. REUTERS/Hazem Ahmed
“Dbeibah looks more solid and permanent now than 48 hours ago,” said analyst Jalel Harchaoui. “Haftar and Aguila Saleh must decide whether they can live with a configuration in which they have almost no control over Tripoli.”
He said negotiations between the major players and their foreign backers could follow. But the rivals could also try to build new military coalitions capable of expanding their areas of control, he said.
National elections, scheduled for last year as part of a UNsponsored peace process, were abandoned amid disputes over the rules governing the vote. Now they appear even further away.
UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to the violence and dialogue to end the impasse.
Several Bashaghaaligned groups in Tripoli appeared to have lost control of territory inside the capital on Saturday. Attempts by other forces, aligned with him and trying to advance on the capital from the west and south, seemed to stall.
A main military convoy that left Misrata, east of Tripoli, where Bashagha has been based for weeks, turned back before reaching the capital.
A senior proBashagha commander, Osama Juweili, said Saturday’s fighting had been sparked by friction between the armed forces in Tripoli. But he told AlAhrar TV that “it is not a crime” to try to bring in a government mandated by parliament.
Airlines said on Sunday that flights were operating normally at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport, a sign that security had been restored for now.
The Health Ministry said on Sunday that 32 people were killed in Saturday’s violence and 159 were wounded, without saying how many were combatants and how many were civilians.
Firefighters were still trying to put out a fire at an apartment block in Tripoli on Sunday morning. A man standing among the nearby residents said, “Who will compensate them? And who will bring the dead back to life?”
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Report by Ahmed Elumami; Additional reporting by Ayman alWarfali; Written by Angus McDowall; Editing by Susan Fenton and Edmund Blair
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