ANSD : Clashes between militias in Tripoli kill 27, wound nearly 100: ministry

SAT 23 - 11 - 2024

Date: Aug 31, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Clashes between militias in Tripoli kill 27, wound nearly 100: ministry

TRIPOLI: At least 27 people have been killed and nearly 100 wounded in several days of fighting between rival militias near the Libyan capital, the Health Ministry said Thursday. The clashes broke out Monday in suburbs south of Tripoli and continued into Wednesday evening after a truce collapsed, despite an appeal by the United Nations for calm.

The clashes came to an end Thursday after a cease-fire agreement announced by officials from western areas, but it was unclear whether the two rival camps would continue to respect it.

Fayez al-Sarraj, the leader of the internationally-recognized Government of National Accord, has tasked forces from western and central regions of Libya with ensuring the rivals adhere to the cease-fire.

These forces are meant to guarantee the withdrawal of the two rival camps from frontlines and ensure normal life returns in the districts affected by the fighting.

The proposed pacifying forces consist mainly of powerful armed groups from the cities of Misrata and Zintan in the west, which are technically under the GNA’s Defense Ministry.

Under the orders of Sarraj, who heads the Libyan army, these military units will be allowed to operate in the capital and its environs only until Sept. 30, when they must leave.

The Misrata and Zintan militias controlled the Libyan capital from the fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 until 2014, when a coalition of militias mainly from Misrata seized the city.

This week’s fighting has pitted Tripoli militias loyal to the GNA against the so-called 7th Brigade.

This unit is from the town of Tarhunah southeast of the capital and is supposed to operate under the GNA’s Defense Ministry.

In a televised speech, Sarraj said Thursday that the 7th Brigade had been “dissolved” since April, before calling on the rival camps to respect the cease-fire.

Tripoli has been at the center of a battle for influence between armed groups since Gadhafi’s fall. In mid-2017, pro-GNA militias neutralized several rival groups in Tripoli. Since then, clashes have been rare.

Meanwhile, hundreds of migrants have been relocated from government-run detention centers after getting trapped by the clashes in the capital, U.N. and aid sources said Thursday.

The migrants had been abandoned after their guards fled the fighting.

Hundreds of migrants have been brought to a “safer place” from two centers run by the government in the Ain Zara area in southeastern Tripoli, aid workers said.

The U.N refugee agency UNHCR “in coordination with other agencies and the Department for Combatting Illegal Migration facilitated the transport of all persons in Ain Zara,” it said in a statement.

The migrants, mainly Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalis, were taken to a separate detention center away from fighting. A few were still waiting to evacuate from Ain Zara, an official at another international organization said.

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