Ceasefire in Libyan capital after two days of clashes

The UN-backed Government of National Accord said on Saturday that rival militias had agreed to a ceasefire and a security committee had been set up to oversee its implementation.

A ceasefire in Tripoli was announced by Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Unity headed by Fayez Al Sarraj. Emmanuel Dunand / AFP / February 2, 2017

A fragile ceasefire came into force in the Libyan capital on Saturday morning 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 throughout Thursday and Friday, in the heaviest militia fighting seen in Tripoli since civil war broke out in July 2014.

Following negotiations between the two sides, the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) issued a statement in the early hours of Saturday saying 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 added.

By late Saturday the ceasefire was holding, although militia road blocks remained in central parts of the city.

Meanwhile, a joint statement by Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States condemned the fighting and reaffirmed support for the Government of National Accord.

The battles have been between two loose militia coalitions, one supporting the Government of National Accord and the other favouring a rival Tripoli-based administration known as the National Salvation Government.

Casualty figures remained unclear on Saturday, 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 the capital’s partially destroyed international airport.

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

Skirmishes between each government’s militias have raged for weeks, and on Monday the motorcade of the Government of National Accord’s prime minister, Fayez Al Sarraj, was ambushed and raked by gunfire as it passed close to the rival administration’s territory. There were no casualties.

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

Martin Kobler, chief of the United Nations Support Mission for Libya, which backs the Government of National Accord, called on Friday for calm, tweeting: “Concerned about ongoing clashes in Abu Selim [sic] Tripoli. Call for calm, dialogue & protection of civilians from getting caught in crossfire.”

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

The battles have been a further blow to the diminishing credibility of the Government of National Accord, which was formed in December 2015 with UN support as a government to unify the country.

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

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

The parliament president Aguila Saleh condemned the militia battles in the capital on Friday, saying: “What’s happening in Tripoli is a terrorist and criminal act.”

The fighting casts a shadow over a new Libyan peace process initiated earlier this month by Egypt, which has encouraged the Government of National Accord and House of Representatives to begin talks on ending the civil war. The National Salvation Government was not invited to the negotiations.

Indirect talks conducted by Egyptian officials in Cairo on February 15 between Mr Al Sarraj and the House of Representatives’ army commander, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, ended with both men agreeing to the formation of a peace commission composed of 15 members from each side.

But the latest fighting in Tripoli casts doubt on whether the UN-backed government has a future.

Last Tuesday its weakness was highlighted in a leaked report by the European Union Border Assistance Mission in Libya, which said there was an “absence of a functioning national government” in the country and that “genuine and legitimate state structures are difficult to identify”.

For the House of Representatives, and for foreign diplomats, the question being asked after the fighting in Tripoli is whether the Government of National Accord is capable of being even a part of a new unity administration, let alone ruling the country alone.