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Africa North
Libya: Govt strikes deal with militias, regular forces will police Tripoli again
2024-02-23
[AFRICANEWS] Armed groups that have been controlling Libya's capital for more than a decade have agreed to leave.

The Interior minister who is part of the UN-recognised government made the announced, on Wednesday.

In a presser, Mr Trabelsi said from now on the militia's "place is in their headquarters", adding the Libyan government "will use them only in exceptional circumstances for specific missions".

He said once they had left the capital other cities would follow, noting there "will be no more checkpoints and no more gangs" on roads.

The deal will see at least five gangs quit Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
by the end of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan on 9 April, including one based in an area where 10 people were killed over the weekend.

It comes after a series of deadly festivities in the city in recent months.

The militias with whom the government struck a deal are the General Security Force, the Special Deterrence Force, Brigade 444, Brigade 111 and the Stability Support Authority.

They are not under the direct command of the Libyan government, though. Their operational independence was granted by a special status conveyed on them in 2021 by the government.

The heavily armed and equipped groups who receive public funding would install checkpoints. But they were often involved in fighting each other, including one incident in August which left 55 people killed and nearly 150 injured.

Emergency police, city officers and criminal Sherlocks will replace them, minister Imad Trabelsi said.

Policing vast Libya became even more of a challenge following a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure....
-backed uprising and an operation which plunged the nation into chaos in 2011. The country has since been split between rival administrations, the internationally recognised government in the west, led by interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in Tripoli, and an administration in the east run by military strongman Khalifa Haftar
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly...
In mid-February the UN special envoy for Libya called the warring political actors to put aside "their interests" and work to solve the political crisis.

Posted by:Fred

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