Accessibility links

Breaking News

UN Delegation Holds Talks in Tripoli to Broker Militia Cease-fire


Damage to a house is seen following clashes between rival militias in the Janzour district on the outskirts of Tripoli, August 5, 2014.
Damage to a house is seen following clashes between rival militias in the Janzour district on the outskirts of Tripoli, August 5, 2014.

A U.N. delegation was holding talks in Tripoli on Friday to try to broker a cease-fire between armed factions who have turned the Libyan capital into a battleground after the worst fighting since the fall of Muammar Gadhafi.

Most Western governments followed the United States and the United Nations in evacuating diplomats and shutting embassies after three weeks of clashes between factions fighting over Tripoli airport that have killed 200 people.

The delegation, led by a representative of the United Nations mission in Libya, known as UNSMIL, aims to end the violence, help displaced residents and alleviate food and gasoline shortages, UNSMIL said in a statement on its website.

“UNSMIL is working closely with the international community in a joint effort to achieve a durable and sustainable cease-fire,” it said.

Tripoli was mostly calm on Thursday and Friday, the quietest days since the clashes erupted between Islamist-allied Misrata brigades and fighters from the western town of Zintan who control the airport.

Three years after the fall of Gadhafi, Libya's fragile government is unable to impose authority on groups of former rebels who refuse to disband and are allied with competing political factions battling over post-war dominance.

  • 16x9 Image

    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

XS
SM
MD
LG