The Libyan street is moving… and the Gaddafi flags are back

Yesterday, the Libyan leaders found themselves, the day after protesters burned down the parliament headquarters in Tobruk, under the growing pressure of the street, which suffers from a deteriorating living situation amid a stifling political impasse. In the fiercest popular demonstrations in Libya since the overthrow of the regime of late President Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, demonstrators stormed the House of Representatives headquarters in Tobruk, the day before yesterday, and tried to demolish and burn it completely.

The demonstrators, some of whom were waving the green flags of the Gaddafi regime, set fire to some corners of the parliament complex and in front of its entrance, and tried to demolish it before looting its contents, to express their anger towards the warring political parties, and to demand their exit from the scene as a whole. In the southern city of Sabha, the headquarters of the Financial Services Supervision, as well as the headquarters of the Steering Council in the city of Tarhuna (west), were also set on fire, coinciding with the storming of the control room of the Electricity Company in the city of Kufra in the Eastern Province.

In the capital, Tripoli, armed militias loyal to the interim “unity” government, headed by Abdel Hamid al-Dabaiba, arrested an unknown number of demonstrators, who gathered in front of its headquarters on the railroad, on charges of inciting the destruction of public property. Yesterday, local media reported the continued closure of some roads and the disruption of movement in some of them.

In turn, the UN advisor, Stephanie Williams, considered that the right of the people to peaceful protest should be respected and protected, but she considered, in return, that the riots and vandalism, such as the storming of the House of Representatives, are “totally unacceptable.” “It is absolutely necessary to maintain calm, to deal with the Libyan leadership responsibly towards the protests, and for everyone to exercise restraint,” she said.

Two governments have been vying for power since March; One is based in Tripoli, in the west of the country, led by Abdel Hamid al-Dabaiba since 2021, and another led by Fathi Bashagha, supported by the Tobruk parliament and Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the strong man in the east.
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