Sebha truce collapses as fighting breaks out

By Jamal Adel.

Tripoli, 17 January 2014:

A local Sebha official has said the tentative truce brokered between Tebu and Awlad Sulieman forces in Sebha on Wednesday has collapsed. As shots are reported on the ground, another wave of deadly clashes in the embattled southern city area is reported as inevitable.

Zahra Ahmed Dazi, Social Affairs Coordinator for Sebha Local Council, told the Libya Herald that there was now frequent artillery and small arms fire in Sebha, adding that she expected further escalation in the coming hours.

A makeshift ceasefire was negotiated in the city on Wednesday by a Zintani delegation headed by former Defence Minister Osama Juwaili. The truce brought an end to nearly five days and six nights of fighting which left 31 dead and 65 wounded.

Violence initially erupted in Sebha a week ago today as tribal and racial tensions between Tebu tribesmen and Awlad Sulieman members erupted over the murder of one of the city’s revolutionary commanders, Mansour Al-Aswad, by Tebu gunmen in Traghen.

Aswad’s killing was seen as an act of retribution for some of the the worst post-revolution violence seen in Sebha when in three says March 2012 some 40 Tebus and 30 members of the Arab Awlad Sulieman tribe were killed.

The security situation in Sebha has been increasingly fragile in recent months with a string small-scale clashes including an attack on the city’s central hospital. At the end of December, Sebha Local Council was forced to suspend work because of the situation

Read more: http://www.libyaherald.com/2014/01/17/sebha-truce-collapses-as-fighting-breaks-out/#ixzz2qhfqENsT