Rival Libya militias down arms in ceasefire

Western nations decry opposing militias’ conflict and affirm support for UN-backed government amid doubts over its credibility

A fragile ceasefire yesterday came into force in Tripoli, Libya’s capital, after two days of fighting between militias loyal to the city’s rival governments.

Battles involving tanks and artillery raged through the central district of Abu Salem on Thursday and Friday, in the heaviest militia fighting in Tripoli since civil war broke out in July 2014.

After negotiations between the two sides, the United Nations- backed Government of National Accord (GNA) yesterday said the rival militias had agreed to a ceasefire and that a security committee had been set up to oversee its implementation.

It also said a monitoring group would be set up to police a de facto front line between the groups. “We affirm our commitment to terminating the activities of the uncontrolled armed militias,” it said.

By late yesterday, the ceasefire was holding although militia roadblocks remained in central parts of the city.

Meanwhile, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States jointly condemned the fighting and reaffirmed support for the GNA. The battles have been between two militia coalitions, one supporting the GNA and the other favouring a Tripolibased administration known as the National Salvation Government (NSG).

Casualty figures remained unclear yesterday, with local media reporting at least 16 dead, many of them civilians.

The Red Crescent sent volunteers to Abu Salem on Thursday and Friday and said it had tried to evacuate families from the combat zone, blaming both sides for “indiscriminate fire”.

Abu Salem is a strategically important residential district close to Bab Al Azizia, the ruined compound of Libya’s former dictator, Muammar Qaddafi.

If either coalition can dominate the area, they will gain control of key traffic routes into the south-west of the city, including Airport Road, which connects to Tripoli’s partially destroyed international airport.

The NSG, under the leadership of self- declared prime minister Khalifa Ghweil, rejects the GNA and has accused it of being directed by foreign powers.

Skirmishes between the rival militias have raged for weeks, and last Monday the motorcade of the GNA’s prime minister, Fayez Al Sarraj, was ambushed and raked by gunfire as it passed close to NSG territory. There were no casualties.

Two days later, the tension between the rival militias boiled over into fighting.

On Friday, Martin Kobler, chief of the United Nations Support Mission for Libya, called for calm. “Concerned about ongoing clashes in Abu Salem Tripoli. Call for calm, dialogue and protection of civilians from getting caught in crossfire,” he tweeted.

The ceasefire offers temporary respite but the threat of escalation is ever present. Mr Ghweil warned that his main militia group, the newly formed Libyan National Guard that was kept out of the recent fighting, would be deployed if there were further clashes.

The battles are an additional blow to the diminishing credibility of the GNA, which was formed in December 2015 with UN support as a government to unify the country.

The self-professed “unity government” has been operating in Tripoli since last March, but its failure to bring militias under control has undermined its credibility.

Both governments in Tripoli are rejected by Libya’s elected parliament, the House of Representatives, which is based in the eastern town of Tobruk. It insists that its own government, led by Abdullah Al Thinni and based in Bayda, is the rightful one.

The fighting casts a pall over a new Libyan peace process initiated this month by Egypt, which has encouraged the GNA and House to begin talks on ending the civil war.

The NSG was not invited to the negotiations.

For the Libyan parliament , and for foreign diplomats, the question being asked after the fighting in Tripoli is whether the GNA is capable of being a part of a new unity administration, let alone being able to rule the country on its own.

The ceasefire offers temporary respite but the threat of escalation is ever-present