Tension grows between Libyan rivals for prime minister’s post

Tripoli, Mar 4 (Prensa Latina) The tension continues to increase in Tripoli in view of Fathi Bashagha's inauguration as Prime Minister and the refusal to cede power of Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who called on his supporters to mobilize.

March 4, 2022
10:51

Bashagha was sworn in at the Tobruk-based House of Representatives on Thursday, and announced his upcoming move to Tripoli, where Dbeibah, backed by several militias, is entrenched.

The first move by Bashagha, who was an Interior Minister, after taking power was to issue a call to the financial, administrative and security agencies to ignore his rival’s orders.

The Tobruk-based House of Representatives elected Bashagha, 59, on February 10, to replace Dbeibah, considering that the latter’s mandate expired on December 24, the date originally chosen for the presidential elections.

Dbeibah rejected the legislature’s thesis and assured that his mandate remains in force until the elections are held.

Libya has been plunged into a spiral of violence since the overthrow of Muammar al-Gaddafi in 2011, following a war supported by members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, among them the United States, France and the United Kingdom.

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