Armed men staged a show of force overnight from Friday to Saturday outside a hotel in Tripoli that serves as the headquarters of the Libyan Presidential Council, as deep divisions resurface in the country after a political upturn.
Images posted on social media show dozens of armed men gathered outside the entrance to the Corinthia Hotel, portrayed as militias by local media.
Presidential Council spokeswoman Najwa Wheba, quoted by the Libyan news agency Lana, confirmed this raid carried out in “one of the headquarters where the Council meets”.
“Today is a weekly day of rest,” she said, however, meaning that the Presidential Council was not there on the spot.
What amounts to a show of force by militias in Tripoli aims, according to the local press, to protest against the recent call made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Najla Mangoush, for the withdrawal of the mercenaries and foreign fighters stationed in the country, including Turkish troops.
Close to the circles of power in the west, Ankara had made it possible to thwart, in June 2020, an offensive by Khalifa Haftar, a strong man from the east, launched in April 2019 to try to seize Tripoli.
The North African country, plunged into chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, was then divided between two rival powers in Tripolitania (west) and Cyrenaica (east).
Turkey had sent drones, instructors, and military advisers, who now train Libyan cadets as part of intense cooperation between the two camps.
Khalifa Haftar had benefited from the support of Russia and the United Arab Emirates, in particular.
A ceasefire was signed in October and a unified government, led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah, was brought to power following an UN-sponsored political process, validated in March by a vote in parliament.
According to the UN roadmap which allowed the appointment of Mr. Dbeibah and a presidential council of three members, the new executive will have to unify the institutions to get the country out of an internationalized conflict and lead the transition from here elections in December.
By calling on Turkey at the beginning of May to “cooperate to put an end to the presence of all foreign forces”, the head of Libyan diplomacy, originally from Benghazi, drew an avalanche of criticism in Tripoli and countless appeals. upon his resignation.
Despite the end of the fighting and the installation of unified power, deep divisions remain between the west and the east, the latter being de facto still controlled by Haftar, while there are some 20,000 mercenaries and foreign fighters of different nationalities still present in Libya.
