Libya’s rival government enters the capital causing clashes
The rival government established by Libya’s eastern parliament said Tuesday that it had arrived in the capital, where the government of national unity refused to hand over power, causing clashes between their militia supporters.
Its press service announced “the arrival of the prime minister of the Libyan government, Fathi Bashagha, accompanied by several ministers, to the capital Tripoli to begin his work there”.
Clashes erupted between rival armed groups shortly after it entered the western city, an AFP reporter said.
In February, the parliament of the eastern city of Tobruk designated former interior minister Bashagha as prime minister.
But it failed to oust the Tripoli-based unitary administration led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, who has repeatedly stated that it will only hand over power to an elected government.
The Dbeibah government was formed in 2020 as part of UN-led efforts to draw a line under a decade of conflict since a NATO-backed uprising overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Dbeibah was supposed to lead the country until last December’s elections, but they have been postponed indefinitely and his political opponents say his term is over.
The rise of the Bashagha government gives the North African country two rival administrations, as was the case between 2014 and the 2020 ceasefire.
