Dozens of people have been killed in the past two weeks in the city of Al Kufra, near Libya’s borders with Chad and Sudan, after a long-standing rivalry between two tribes erupted into violence. The fighting is a fresh challenge for Libya’s new leadership which took over after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi last year but has struggled to restore stability, hampered by the lack of an effective national army.
Armed forces chief of staff Youssef al-Mangoush said on Thursday Libyan forces had intervened to end the fighting, in a rare example of the government in Tripoli imposing its authority over the fractious country. However representatives of the two rival tribes in Al Kufra, the Tibu and Zwai, said clashes had resumed again.
The Tibu looted some houses and stole cars, we had to defend ourselves, The army hasn’t done anything – Adelbari Idriss, a security official from the Zwai tribe
Isa Abdel Majid, who is leading the Tibu fighters, also said fighting had resumed and that Tibu living in the western suburbs of Al Kufra had come under attack. He said people had been injured but did not give a figure.
He said around 100 people on the Tibu side were killed since the clashes began.
“More than 30 of those died while they were being evacuated by road to hospitals in other towns.
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