Terrorist militias: Complex file obstructing Libyan elections

Libya seems far from the claims of electoral entitlements launched by international parties interested in the Libyan issue. At a time when the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and with it regional and European countries are pushing for a speedy agreement on a legislative basis for the elections postponed from last year, Libya remains stuck at the point of armed militias.

Militia file...ups and downs

The Libyan arena has witnessed contradictory shifts recently at the level of the militia file, as Libyan media outlets published news about clashes that took place at the end of January between Libyan armed militias affiliated with the interim Government of National Unity (GNU) headed by Abdel Hamid Dabaiba against the background of a power struggle.

The media reported that the fight took place in the Karimiya area, south of the capital, Tripoli, between two militias, one of them from the city of Zawiya, who refused to stand at a gate on the road to Tripoli International Airport, which resulted in clashes between the group and another from the city of Zintan. The reasons for the quarrel are due to a competition for influence between the two groups affiliated with the ministries of interior and defense in the Dabaiba government.

On the opposite side, the spokesman for the Chadian Union of Forces for Democracy and Development announced the start of the withdrawal of its forces from the southern city of Sebha towards Chadian territory.

The withdrawal comes in implementation of the agreement signed by the Chadian transitional government with 30 rebel and opposition groups in the Qatari capital, Doha, last August.

This step anticipates a meeting announced by the UN envoy to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, on January 17, without specifying a date, saying only “in the coming weeks.” The meeting is supposed to include countries neighboring southern Libya to discuss mechanisms for removing mercenaries coming from these countries and preventing their infiltration into Libya again.

The file of armed militias in Libya is of regional and international importance, as calls are repeated to cleanse Libya of militants in order to pave the way for the legislative and presidential elections, and then to restore control to the Libyan state.

This file is considered one of the most complex, as foreign parties stand behind these militias, in addition to the spread of weapons in Libyan tribal society, which makes local militias another crisis added to the crisis of foreign militias.

All of this distances Libya from the step of elections, which have been postponed from one year to another due to the inability of the Libyan parties to agree on the constitutional basis through which the elections are supposed to be organized.

Libya was scheduled to hold elections in 2022, but the conflict of institutions and their competition for influence prevented the development of the election law and the writing of a constitution, so it was decided to postpone the elections for an unknown time, and this is considered a failure of the Dabaiba government, which was formed with the purpose of preparing the scene for the elections.