By John Ikani
Clashes between militias backed by Libya’s rival governments have killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens more, according to the country’s health ministry.
Intense fighting erupted in the capital Tripoli overnight as rival factions exchanged intense gunfire and several loud explosions resounded across the city.
Pictures and videos circulating on social media show the extent of the clashes with dozens of buildings, including residential ones, destroyed and several cars smashed and burned.
The fighting in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, on Saturday was the worst there in two years and has raised fears the country could plunge back into full-blown war.
Among the fatalities was Mustafa Baraka, a comedian known for his social media videos mocking militias and corruption. Baraka died after he was shot in his chest, said Malek Merset, an emergency services spokesman.
Merset said emergency services were still trying to evacuate wounded people and civilians trapped in the fighting, which erupted overnight and continued into Saturday evening.
In an updated death toll, the health ministry said 140 people had been wounded while 64 families had to be evacuated from areas around the fighting.
It said hospitals and medical centres in the capital were shelled, and ambulance teams were barred from evacuating civilians, in acts that “amount to war crimes”.
Libya has been split between warring factions since 2014, following the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Moammar Gadhafi.
The UN-backed Government of National Unity (GNU) said on its official Facebook page the clashes “were triggered by a military group firing randomly at a convoy passing in the Zawia Street area, while armed groups were gathering at the 27th gate west of Tripoli and the Jebs Gate south of Tripoli.”
The country’s interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, the head of the GNU, is based in Tripoli in the western part of Libya. The parliament building in Tobruk in the east of the country is the seat of a rival government led by Prime Minister Fathi Bashagha.
Bashagha has been trying to enter and take over Tripoli as he claims the GNU is illegal and should step aside. The GNU has refused and claimed power should be handed peacefully through elections, not force.
