Sabha Conflict

"Landep News"

Sabha Conflict

Rival militias in south Libya announced on Wednesday that they reached an agreement to a ceasefire following a conflict that lasted three days. About 50 people were killed in Libya, despite the deployment of military troops which are intended to put a stop to the bloodshed. The ceasefire highlights the failure of the central government to impose its authority on the territory.
The violence on Tuesday spread toward the central fourth-largest city in Libya, as the fight between Sabha gunmen and Tibu ethnic group reached the center of the city of Sabha. The ministry of interior said that 300 fighters are stationed in the southern of the country and other 300 left Tripoli to help on Tuesday. According to a report the governmental forces arrived to south and were caught in the middle of the fight. Wall Street Journal cites an unconfirmed report which says that the troops retreated out of the city.
The fighting broke out on Sunday after a man from Sabha was killed in a dispute over a car. According to a Tibu representative in the National Transitional Council, the clashes represent an unfortunate escalation of violence caused by the fact that a Tibu person wanted to steal a car from a Sabha man.
Dozens of people were killed last month as a conflict broke out in the southern remote province of Al Kufra. The national army was able to put it down on that occasion.
The clashes between tribal leaders occur a few months before the parliamentary elections in June, when new authorities are expected to come to power and unite the country under one government.
The National Transitional Council has been spending the time since it took office attempting to convince the tribal leaders to lay weapons and join the national army. So far, many tribal leaders have been locked in a battle for resources and power with other tribal leaders.
A serious challenge to the national integrity of the territory was posed by the conference of the tribes in the eastern part of the country, Cyrenaica, which established a Cyrenaica Provincial Council, a body without legally binding power, but with a very symbolic power, and demanded that the country’s power structure be restored to what it was before the Qaddafi regime.
The Cyrenaica council demanded that Libya be turned into three semiautonomous bodies, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan, each having its own parliament, police, courts and the capital of the province the city of Benghazi.
The provincial council recognizes the National Transitional Council as a country’s symbol of unity and legitimate representation on the international arena. They made it clear that the move was not meant to divide Libya, but only to offer it the possibility to return to a power structure that was cherished by the people during the monarchy.
Analysts consider that the decision of the Cyrenaican people to have a semiautonomy stated comes from the frustration of the people of the east that their province has been ignored by the former regime, and its development was far slower than that of the other two provinces.
Benghazi was the hotbed of the Libyan revolution against the regime of Muammar al-Qaddafi, and was also the hometown of the former king, Idris, the only monarch of the independent Libya.
The council in Cyrenaica appointed Ahmed al-Senussi, nephew to the former king and the man who spent most time in Qaddafi’s prisons, as leader. The NTC deemed the move in Cyrenaica as “dangerous,” and the interim prime minister pledged to defend the country’s unity by force, if necessary.
The instability of the state and the lack of authority of the Tripoli government, as well as the self-proclaimed autonomy of Cyrenaica is having a toll on the country’s economy, which is strictly depending on the oil production.
The European and American oil companies are reluctant to invest in Libya until the political and territorial disputes are resolved and the investment may be considered secure.

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