CAIRO — Clashes between government-allied militias shook a coastal city in western Libya, trapping families inside their homes and forcing the closure of schools on Saturday, officials said. At least one civilian was killed.
The latest outbreak of violence in the chaos-stricken Mediterranean nation erupted early Saturday in the town of Zawiya, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the capital, Tripoli, health officials said.
The Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency services reported that at least one civilian was killed and at least 22 others were injured in the clashes that centered on the southern part of the city. Several families have been evacuated during a brief lull in the fighting, he added.
The Libyan Red Crescent, which helped evacuate the trapped families, called on the parties involved to open safe corridors for the remaining families in the area where the fighting took place.
The Health Ministry said clashes subsided midday Saturday thanks to the city’s tribal elders. “The situation is now calm” in southern Zawiya, he said.
The warring sides are allied with the government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, based in the capital Tripoli. A spokesperson for Dbeibah’s government did not respond to a request for comment.
The cause of the clashes was not immediately clear. However, local media reported that clashes broke out when security forces attempted to arrest a man suspected of murder earlier this year.
The clashes also occurred after security authorities found three young men and a woman dead on the side of a road in the city. The circumstances of his murder were not immediately clear.
The fighting was the latest bout of violence to rock western Libya, which is controlled by a series of illegal militias allied with Dbeibah’s government. In August last year, a 24-hour period of fighting between rival militias in Tripoli killed at least 45 people.
The oil-rich North African country has been devastated by conflict since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
The country has been divided for years between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. The country is now governed by Dbehiba’s government in Tripoli and Prime Minister Ossama Hammad’s administration in eastern Libya.
In the eastern city of Benghazi, lawmaker Ibarhim al-Darai disappeared after a robbery at his home earlier this week, the Hamad government’s Interior Ministry said late Friday. The ministry said it was investigating al-Darsi’s disappearance.
Al-Darsi’s disappearance recalled the case of another legislator, Sigam Sergiwa, kidnapped in Benghazi in July 2019.
Sergiwa was taken from her home by armed men wearing military uniforms on July 17, hours after she criticized a failed 2019 offensive by powerful commander Khalifa Hifter’s eastern Libyan forces to seize Tripoli, according to Amnesty International. .
Benghazi is the stronghold of Hifter’s forces, who control eastern and southern Libya and back Hammad’s government.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
