Libya: HoR-backed PM Bashagha leaves Tripoli after fighting erupts

Libya’s parliament-appointed prime minister Fathi Bashagha left the capital Tripoli on Tuesday, his office said, hours after his attempt to enter the city led to clashes between rival factions.

Clashes erupted earlier on Tuesday as Bashagha arrived to try to take control of government from a rival administration that has refused to cede power.

Fighting broke out Tuesday in the capital of war-battered Libya after Bashagha arrived to try to take control of government from a rival administration, led by Abdulhamid Dbeibah, since the beginning of 2021. When he was challenged by Fathi Bashagha, who was appointed as rival premier by the parliament in the country’s eastern city of Tobruk, Dbeibah refused to cede power leading to a standoff between the two rival governments.

Violence flared after his press service announced “the arrival of the prime minister of the Libyan government, Mr. Fathi Bashagha, accompanied by several ministers, in the capital Tripoli to begin his work there.” He was also accompanied by an armed faction.

After his attempts to take over the capital Tripoli triggered clashes, Fathi Bashagha said he will base his government in Sirte from this Wednesday.

The fighting between backers of the two rival administrations threatens renewed chaos in the oil-rich north African country, raising fears of a return to the chaos that has reigned since a NATO-backed popular revolt in 2011 toppled dictator Moammar Gaddafi, and an all-out conflict that gripped the capital in 2019-20.

Dbeibah’s government was tasked with leading Libya to elections scheduled for last December, but these were indefinitely postponed and his political opponents argue that his mandate has now ended.