Fighting raged across the city throughout Saturday as forces aligned with the parliament-backed administration of Fathi Bashagha failed to take control of the capital and topple the Tripoli-based government of Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah. On a tour of the city on Sunday, Reuters saw workers clearing glass and debris from streets littered with cases of spent ammunition, as Dbeibah-aligned fighters stood in front of bases seized by Bashagha-linked forces. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Traffic was backed up on many roads as residents inspected damage to their properties. Clashes broke out and ended suddenly. But the brief nature of the flare-up has not allayed fears of a wider conflict rekindling between the rivals after months of stalemate in a nation that has endured more than a decade of chaos and violence. Libya has had little peace since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted longtime autocrat Muammar Gaddafi, splitting the nation in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions and drawing in regional powers. Oil production in Libya, a boon for the warring groups, has been repeatedly cut off. Bashagha’s prospects of seizing control of Tripoli, which is in western Libya, look bleak for now, but there is no sign of a wider political or diplomatic compromise to end the Libyan power struggle. read more The powerful eastern faction that backed Bashaga, 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 Dbeiba’s government had overstayed its term and appointed Bashaga to replace him earlier this year after a political process to prepare for elections collapsed. Dbeibah disputed this.
VOTE PROGRAMS IN NUMBERS
People gather next to burnt cars after yesterday’s clashes in Tripoli, Libya, August 28, 2022. REUTERS/Hazem Ahmed read more “Dbeibah looks more stable and more 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 in Tripoli.” He said behind-the-scenes negotiations between key players and their foreign backers could follow. But the adversaries may also seek to create new military coalitions capable of expanding their areas of control, he said. National elections, planned for last year as part of a UN-sponsored peace process, were abandoned amid disputes over voting rules. Now they seem even further away. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to violence and dialogue to end the impasse. Several Basaga-aligned groups in Tripoli appeared to have lost ground control inside the capital on Saturday. Efforts 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 started from Misrata, east of Tripoli, where Bashaga has been based for weeks, turned back before reaching the capital. A senior pro-Basaga commander, Osama Juweili, said Saturday’s fighting was sparked by friction between the armed forces in Tripoli. However, he told Al-Ahrar TV station that it was “not a crime” to try to bring in a parliament-mandated government. Airlines said on Sunday that flights were operating normally at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport, a sign that security has been restored for now. The health ministry said on Sunday that 32 people were killed in Saturday’s violence and 159 were injured, without specifying how many were militants and how many were civilians. Firefighters are still trying to put out the fire in an apartment building in Tripoli on Sunday morning. A man standing among residents nearby said, “Who will compensate them? And who will bring the dead back to life?” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Ahmed Elumami. Additional reporting by Ayman al-Warfali. Angus McDowall writes. Edited by Susan Fenton and Edmund Blair Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
