Thirteen people were killed and twenty seven were injured in the armed conflicts in Tripoli, the capital city of Libya, two days ago. According to available sources, fighters exchanged fire in a central district, which accommodates several government and international agencies and diplomatic missions, but later clashes spread to the areas of Ain Zara and Asbaa. Fighting occurred between rival groups such as the Nawasi Brigade, a militia loyal to politician Fathi Bashagha, and the Stability Support Force, which backs interim premier Dbeibeh, who was appointed under a troubled United Nations-led peace process early last year to lead a transition to elections set for December 2021. Immediately after the clash, the interior minister was replaced.
Of course, clashes in Libya, a war-torn country, are not surprising. Indeed, there are frequent armed clashes between groups including the government force and other armed groups. Last month, Bashagha attempted to seize power by force which led to predawn clashes between armed groups supporting him and those backing Dbeibah. Some countries outside of Libya including Turkey were also directly and indirectly involved with rival parties in Libya before reaching the landmark deal last year, where the problem started after the military attacks of the Western countries and an uprising around a decade ago that toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011 leaving a power vacuum which the armed groups have been wrangling to fill with a series of political crises and violence for years. Clashes have been undermining the transition process in the country for a long but the problem augmented a few years back.
Of course, there were convincing power vacuum based reasons for the conflicts in Libya since 2011. The latest conflict is primarily because of one group’s detention of a fighter belonging to the other that had sparked the fighting. But the main reason for the fighting that rocked the country is that two prime ministers vie for power, which is also indicative of the continuum of the power struggle driven by a long power vacuum. While Abdelhamid Dbeibeh was appointed as the transitional prime minster to hold national elections that were set for December 2021 and transfer power to elected representatives, Bashagha who was backed by powerful Field Marshal Haftar, who tried to take control of Tripoli in 2019, was appointed as the new prime minister by the parliament in the East in February this year. Since then tensions remarkably increased in Libya, which counted enormous losses due to long armed conflicts.
Of course, many efforts were made by the UN and different regional and global actors to resolve the crisis by putting an elected government in place. Consequently, a landmark truce between the government and the opposition military alliance was reached in 2020 showing a light of hope. Though the truce helped to mitigate the conflicts for around two years, it is pertinent to note that fighting may get worse in the future. This is because the problem of power struggle has not yet been resolved, though there are chances. Additionally, disputes among local political leaders regarding elections and the failure to hold elections in December last year led to renewed tensions between the Dbeibeh government and the new prime minister, who was welcomed in Tripoli a few days ago by Al Nawasi, a major militia group in the capital city of Libya.
Thus, some efforts are needed to resolve the Libyan crisis. Of course, all the parties need to refrain from any provocative actions or armed attacks but elections, which were indefinitely postponed, need to be held. Elections are important as without elections Libya may resort to conflicts once again. In this respect, all the parties including two Prime ministers need to hold talks for credible elections and the transfer of power to elected representatives. But the incumbent executive needs to arrange the elections earlier. Also, disputes between local political leaders that led to the postponement of elections need to be resolved to successfully come to an elections based solution. Here, regional and international efforts can also be effective.
