Renewed clashes on Friday between militias loyal to rival Libyan governments killed at least 13 people in the country’s capital, Tripoli, a spokesman for the city's emergency services said.
According to the spokesman, Osama Ali, among those killed were three civilians from the area and a 12-year-old child. He said 30 people had been wounded.
Earlier Friday, one of Libya’s rival governments had called on militias to stop fighting, after clashes broke out overnight, killing at least one civilian and forcing around 200 people to flee the area. Friday's violence brought the overall death toll to at least 14.
Libya has for years been split between rival administrations in the east and the west, each supported by various well-armed militias and foreign governments. The Mediterranean nation has been in a state of upheaval since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled and later killed longtime ruler Moammar al-Gaddafi.
The Libyan Presidential Council, based in Tripoli, said in a statement early Friday that all forces involved should go back to their bases immediately. However, the clashes continued and spread to other areas of the Libyan capital.
The Mitiga airport, Tripoli’s only working airport, announced that it was closing out of concern for its passengers’ safety.
It was the latest violence to threaten the relative peace after nearly a decade of war, and comes as Libya is in a political stalemate between two rival sets of authorities. The divisions have sparked several incidents of violence in Tripoli in recent months.
Malek Merset, a spokesman for Tripoli's emergency services, said roughly 200 people had been evacuated through a corridor the emergency service set up in the early hours of Friday after the clashes first broke out. He called for calm so that more could be allowed to leave.
The cause of the latest fighting was unclear. Videos shared on social media showed local militia forces deploying and heavy fire being exchanged across the night sky.
The country’s plan to transition to an elected government fell through after an interim administration based in Tripoli, headed by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibah, failed to hold elections last year.
Dbeibah was meant to share executive power with The Presidential Council in Tripoli until an elected government could take over. The postponement drove aground yearslong UN-led attempts to usher in a more democratic future and bring the country’s war to an end.
Dbeibah has refused to step down since then, raising questions over his mandate.
In response, the country’s east-based lawmakers have elected a rival prime minister, Fathi Bashagha, a powerful former interior minister who is now operating a separate administration out of the city of Sirte. An attempt in May by Bashagha to install his government in Tripoli also ended in clashes that killed one, after which he withdrew.
