Haftar forces block UN flights in and out of Libya
CAIRO: Forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar have blocked flights carrying United Nations staff to and from Libya, hampering humanitarian and mediation efforts, the UN mission said on Wednesday.
Haftar’s eastern-based Libya National Army has on several occasions in recent weeks refused to grant permission for the regular UN flights to land, the UN mission in Libya ( UNSMIL) said in a statement.
The LNA has been trying since last April to capture the capital Tripoli from the internationally recognised government but has failed to breach the city’s defences.
But relations have been difficult as UNSMIL has condemned air strikes blamed on the LNA, though mostly without mentioning the force by name.
Eastern officials have accused Salame of being biased against them, charges denied by the United Nations.
UNSMIL has a large base in Tripoli and also provides humanitarian relief for migrants and people displaced by the conflict.
Artillery shells on Tuesday hit the centre of the Libyan capital, which eastern forces have been trying to take in a near year-long war, residents said.
Haftar moved on Tripoli held by the internationally recognised government in April, failing to breach defences in southern suburbs but increasingly dragging civilians into the conflict.
Shells landed late at night in the central Nouflin and Souq Al Jumaa districts, which had been mostly spared so far from the conflict, a Reuters reporter said.
Parts of the capital were plunged in darkness as power failed. The electricity grid has been often hit.
There was no immediate word on casualties from authorities and no more details available. The war has displaced some 150,000 people, according to the United Nations.
That has prompted Turkey to come to the aid of Tripoli Premier Fayez Al Serraj by sending troops to Tripoli. Up to 2,000 fighters from Syria’s civil war have also joined the battle to defend the capital, a UN official said last month.
Both sides held ceasefire talks last week in Geneva but have repeatedly blamed each other for daily violations of a shaky truce declared a month ago.
The UN Security Council was asked Tuesday to vote on a resolution supporting a ceasefire in Libya, in what would be the first binding text adopted since fighting flared in April last year.