The most intense clashes for years rocked Tripoli for a second night and continued into Wednesday morning, witnesses in the Libyan capital said, after Monday’s killing of a major militia leader set off fighting between rival factions. The United Nations Libya mission UNSMIL said it was “deeply alarmed by the escalating violence in densely populated neighborhoods of Tripoli” and urgently called for a ceasefire. The latest unrest in Libya’s capital could consolidate the power of Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, prime minister of the divided country’s Government of National Unity (GNU) and an ally of Turkey. Libya has had little stability since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising ousted longtime autocrat Muammar Gaddafi and the country split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions, though an outbreak of major warfare paused with a truce in 2020. A major energy exporter, Libya is also an important way station for migrants heading to Europe and its conflict has drawn in foreign powers including Turkey, Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Its main oil facilities are located in southern and eastern Libya, far from the current fighting in Triopli. While eastern Libya has been dominated for a decade by commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA), control in Tripoli and western Libya has been splintered among numerous armed factions.

Full report : UN calls for calm as fighting resumes in Libya’s Tripoli.