A UN delegation held talks in Tripoli yesterday to try to broker a ceasefire between armed factions that have turned the Libyan capital and Benghazi into battlegrounds in the worst fighting since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
Most Western governments followed the United States and the United Nations in evacuating diplomats and shutting embassies after three weeks of militia fighting over Tripoli airport that have killed more than 200 people.
The delegation, led by a representative of the UN mission in Libya, known as UNSMIL, aims to end the violence, help displaced residents and alleviate shortages of food and basic services, UNSMIL said in a statement.
“UNSMIL is working closely with the international community in a joint effort to achieve a durable and sustainable ceasefire,” it said, giving no further details on who UN officials were meeting in Tripoli.
Western partners worry Libya is sliding deeper into armed chaos
Tripoli was mostly calm on Thursday and yesterday, the quietest days since the clashes erupted between Islamist-allied Misurata brigades and fighters from the western town of Zintan who control the international airport.
Benghazi was also quieter a week after an alliance of Islamist fighters and former rebels took a special forces army base and a police headquarters following days of heavy clashes involving air force jets and attack helicopters.
Three years after the fall of Gaddafi, Libya’s fragile government is unable to impose authority on groups of former rebels who refuse to disband and are allied with competing political factions battling for post-war dominance.
Many of the militia brigades are paid by the government as semi-official security forces, each claiming to be legitimate and each holding vast arsenals of tanks, cannons and rockets taken from Gaddafi’s arms dumps after the war. But they are often more loyal to their political patrons, commanders, regions or cities than to the Tripoli government.
Fighting since last month over the airport involves two loose factions of ex-rebels whose rivalries have erupted since they rushed to claim parts of the capital after Gaddafi’s fall. On one side are Zintanis, and their anti-Islamist Qaaqaa and Al Sawaiq brigades, including some former Gaddafi forces, who present themselves as a bastion against Islamist extremists and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Against them are brigades from the western port of Misurata, allied with Islamist political forces and other militias, who say they are fighting to clear out remnants of Gaddafi’s army.
Zintan forces, who control the airport, have said they are ready for a ceasefire, but Misurata forces – including the Libya Shield brigades which are attacking the airport – say they will not accept any agreement until the Zintan forces leave Tripoli.
Three years after Nato air strikes helped rebels defeat Gaddafi forces on the ground, Western partners worry Libya is sliding deeper into armed chaos just across the Mediterranean sea from mainland Europe.
Libyan officials have urged international partners to help, and the new parliament has called for a United Nations-backed ceasefire to be put in place between the warring factions who have become increasingly polarised.