According to the health ministry, 32 people were killed and 159 were injured in confrontations between competing factions in Tripoli on Saturday night, after months of political conflict devolved into street battles. Officials have accused one other of blaming each other, although what transpired was the fault of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dabaiba of the National Integration Administration and his competitor in Sirte Fatih Bashaga, who was designated leader of the new government by parliament.
On Saturday night, Dabaiba toured different concentrations of military and militias supporting his administration from downtown Tripoli, emphasising that, as he puts it, the time for coups is past. He also intimated that because Tripoli is our city, his troops will defend it.
According to a parliamentary-appointed government spokesman, the unity government was to blame for the confrontation and its aftermath.
In a statement to Libyan local TV channel Al-Ahrar, spokesman Othman Abdel Jalil alleged that the hostilities were begun by armed groups loyal to the overthrown Dabaiba administration. These continuous skirmishes in the capital for control of the government increase fears that the country would devolve into all-out war after two years of relative quiet under an East-West truce and political deal.
A months-long stalemate between the Tripoli-based government of National Unity and the parliament-backed Bashaga administration in the country’s east.
Tripoli is shaken by the threat of conflict. Dabaiba The era of coups has passed! ”
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