Libya is sending troops to the country’s restive south after gunmen stormed an air force base in the region’s biggest town, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said yesterday, following days of skirmishes between rival tribesmen and militias.

Western powers fear the OPEC producer will slide into instability as the government struggles to contain heavily-armed militias, tribesmen and Islamists who helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but refuse to disarm.

Weak border controls and a small army lacking equipment have turned Libya into a weapons-smuggling route

Weak border controls and a small army lacking equipment have turned Libya into a weapons-smuggling route for al-Qaeda in sub-Saharan countries and also a transit corridor for Islamist fighters heading to Syria’s war.

Zeidan said a small group of gunmen had entered the air force base outside Sabha, 770 km south of the capital Tripoli, but the government was in control of the town and its civilian airport.

“This confrontation (at the air base) is continuing but in a few hours it will be solved,” the Prime Minister told a televised address, without elaborating.

Zeidan said he had sent his defence minister to Misurata to instruct troops based there to move to the south. The central coastal city is home to some of the most experienced soldiers and militias, battle-hardened from the 2011 uprising.

“The troops from Misurata have been commissioned by the government to conduct a national task ... to spread security and stability in the region,” he said in the address.

Western powers worry about instability in the sparsely populated south bordering Niger, Chad, Sudan and Egypt. People traffickers also use the desert borders to smuggle refugees into Libya, from where many try to reach Italy by boat.

In Tripoli, security forces were put on maximum alert after the clashes in Sabha, a security spokesmen said, without elaborating.

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