The battle for Libya’s capital intensified as the UN Security Council prepared to meet Wednesday to discuss the crisis gripping the North African country, where armed rivals are locked in a deadly power struggle. The closed-door talks in New York come a day after the United Nations postponed a Libyan national conference aimed at drawing […]
Libya
UN chief calls for immediate halt to Libya fighting
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday strongly condemned the military escalation near Tripoli and called for an immediate halt to the fighting in Libya. The appeal followed an air attack by the forces of commander Khalifa Haftar on the Mitiga airport east of the capital. Guterres “urges the immediate halt of all military operations in […]
Escalating Libya conflict prompts international alarm
The conflict shaking Libya escalated Sunday as forces of strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an air strike on a suburb of Tripoli and the UN-backed government vowed a major counteroffensive. The United Nations called for an urgent two-hour truce to allow evacuations of civilians and the wounded, while the unity government said the fighting had so […]
Can Libya’s strongman Hafter capture Tripoli?
The sudden offensive against Tripoli by Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar has taken pro-government forces and the international community by surprise. But is he really capable of seizing the Libyan capital? Why the lightning assault? Haftar’s self-proclaimed Libyan National Army launched the assault on Thursday as UN chief Antonio Guterres visited Tripoli ahead of a planned […]
Libya in focus at G7 foreign ministers meeting, minus Pompeo
Foreign ministers from the G7 group of nations will discuss the threat of a resurgence in Libya’s civil war at a meeting in western France on Friday, as world powers scrambled to defuse a dangerous escalation in the oil producer’s power struggle. A military advance towards Tripoli and Libya’s U.N. backed government by eastern commander […]
Roads deadlier than guns in Libya
Roads in conflict-riddled Libya, where petrol is cheaper than mineral water, rank among the deadliest in the world. Disregard for traffic rules, a dilapidated infrastructure and cars that fail to meet safety standards combine to make road accidents in Libya more lethal than incidents involving weapons. In Tariq al-Siqqa, a public park in central Tripoli, […]
Libyan navy says 63 missing in new Mediterranean shipwreck
A new shipwreck off the Libyan coast has left 63 people missing in the latest disaster to hit migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean. The group are feared drowned after the inflatable boat they were on sank, a spokesman for Libya’s navy General Ayoub Kacem told AFP, citing eyewitness accounts from survivors. Kacem said that […]
Traffickers torture, kill migrants trying to escape refugee camp in Libya
Photo: AFP More than 12 migrants were shot dead by human traffickers last week while trying to escape a camp in Libya, where some were subjected to “torture abuse”, the United Nations said Friday. The incident, previously reported by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and local sources, occurred on May 23 in the town of Bani […]
Low hopes greet French calls for conference on Libya
Rival Libyan leaders vying for influence in the fractured and war-scarred country meet in Paris on Tuesday for a major peace conference seen as a risky French-backed push for a political settlement in the country. Many analysts are sceptical that the initiative to invite four senior figures representing Libya’s factions, as well as neighbouring countries […]
Bomb blast in Benghazi claims 7 lives, leaves 20 injured
At least seven people were killed and around twenty others injured late Thursday in a car bomb attack in the centre of Benghazi in eastern Libya, a local security official told AFP. The bomb exploded close to the Tibesti hotel on a busy road where many people go to celebrate during the month of Ramadan, […]