Libyan government orders loyalists to retake ministries from rival
NAN-F-12
Rival
Cairo, Jan. 13, 2017 (dpa/NAN) Libya’s UN-backed government has ordered forces loyal to it to retake ministries seized the day before by a rival government, the report said on Friday,
This has raised fears of more conflict in the war-wracked country.
The self-appointed rival Prime Minister, Khalifa Ghweil, had announced on Thursday that his forces had control of several state institutions, including the Defence Ministry in the capital, Tripoli.
The takeover prompted a meeting of the Presidency Council of the internationally recognised government, also based in Tripoli.
Participants in the meeting told military forces to “counter” any attempt to seize government buildings, the government said in a statement, according to LANA.
The council called the takeover by Ghweil’s loyalists “illegal and carried out at gunpoint.”
Libya has descended into political and security chaos since longtime dictator Moamer Gaddafi was overthrown and slain in a 2011 uprising.
Ghweil was prime minister in the unrecognised National Salvation Government installed by an Islamist militia that took control of Tripoli in mid-2014.
He has been sanctioned by the European Union for obstructing the peace process in Libya.
In March 2016, the UN-backed unity government led by Fayez Serraj took over in Tripoli amid international hopes it will end chaos in oil-rich Libya.
The Serraj government has been unable to gain recognition from the elected parliament based in the eastern city of Tobruk, where a third government is based. (dpa/NAN)
(Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/ Julius Enehikhuere)