Clashes Rock Libya Capital For Hours After Rival PM Enters City

Tripoli, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th May, 2022 ) :The capital of war-battered Libya was rocked by fighting between backers of two rival administrations for several hours Tuesday, threatening renewed chaos in the oil-rich North African country.

The side backed by an eastern-based military strongman then pulled out of the western city of Tripoli, citing the "security and safety of citizens", as the United Nations, European Union and United States launched urgent appeals for calm.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the fighting that erupted before dawn, according to AFP correspondents.

Libya has been ruled by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, but he has been challenged by Fathi Bashagha, who was named as rival premier in February by the parliament in the country's eastern city of Tobruk and is backed by strongman Khalifa Haftar.

Violence flared before dawn after Bashagha's press service announced "the arrival of the prime minister of the Libyan government, Mr Fathi Bashagha, accompanied by several ministers, in the capital Tripoli to begin his work there".

The fighting raised fears of a return to the chaos that reigned after a NATO-backed popular revolt in 2011 toppled dictator Moamer Kadhafi, and to the all-out conflict that gripped the capital when pro-Haftar forces attacked in 2019-20.

After several hours early Tuesday, Bashagha's camp announced that he and his ministers "have left Tripoli to preserve the security and safety of citizens".

There was no immediate reaction from the unity administration led by Dbeibah, which was installed in 2020 as part of a troubled UN-backed peace process and which has since refused to step down.

- 'Dialogue and mediation' - The UN's top in-country official, Stephanie Williams, in a tweet called for calm and stressed the necessity of "refraining from provocative actions including inflammatory rhetoric, participation in clashes and the mobilisation of forces.

"Conflict cannot be solved with violence but with dialogue and mediation." Dbeibah's government was tasked with leading Libya to elections scheduled for last December, but these were indefinitely postponed and his political opponents argue that his mandate has now finished.

Bashagha, in video footage broadcast by Libyan television stations, meanwhile said he had "received a very warm welcome" in Tripoli.

He announced that he would hold a news conference on Tuesday evening during which he would deliver a "unity speech to the Libyan people".

Bashagha's interior minister Issam Abu Zariba pledged that their administration would assume its duties "peacefully" and "in compliance with law".

He called on "all security forces and concerned parties to cooperate" in ensuring a smooth transition.

Pro-Bashagha armed groups had already deployed in March on the edges of the capital, raising fears of a confrontation that would end a fragile ceasefire in place since October 2020.