Four people killed in clashes between militias in the Libyan capital

July 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –

At least four people, including a child, have died in clashes in recent hours in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, led by opposing militias amid rising tensions due to the political crisis and the deepening of the economic crisis.

The spokesman for the Tróli ambulance service, Osama Ali, has detailed in statements given to the Libyan television channel Al Ahrar that the fighting has taken place in the areas of Zauiya al Dahmani, Al Furnaj and Ain Zara, although medical sources have indicated that there would be nine dead, according to the newspaper ‘The Libya Observer’.

At the moment there are no more details about these combats, in which militiamen loyal to the Presidential Council and the Special Force of Dissuasion (RADA) would have been involved. According to Al Ahrar, the situation is relatively calm in the areas affected by the fighting.

For its part, the Presidential Council has published a statement in which it has asked the parties to “end the fighting and immediately return to their positions”, before demanding that the Prosecutor’s Office “open an exhaustive investigation into the causes of clashes”.

“The Ministries of Defense and Interior of the Government of National Unity must take the necessary measures to impose security in the capital”, he indicated, just a few days after senior military officials of the opposing administrations held an infrequent meeting in Tripoli in who asked to proceed to the unification of the hand chain to try to move towards a solution to the crisis.

The talks on the military track are part of a three-way process promoted to try to end the conflict in the country, deepened after the postponement of the presidential elections scheduled for December 2021. The House of Representatives, based in the east, affirmed After that, the mandate of the Prime Minister of Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibé, had expired and he appointed Fazi Bashaga as his replacement.

The unity government has rejected the decision of the House of Representatives, which represents a setback for the efforts to end the conflict, and has maintained that Dbeibé will remain in office to implement his new ‘road map’, which contemplated the holding of legislative elections in June, preceded by a constitutional referendum that generates a legal framework for holding the elections, although it has not taken place.

Dbeibé was elected as prime minister by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) in February 2021, thereby replacing the then unity prime minister, Fayez Serraj, who agreed to cede his powers after the consultation process, initiated after a ceasefire agreement after the Tripoli authorities rejected the military offensive launched in April 2019 by General Khalifa Haftar, aligned with the authorities based in the east.