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Libya: Unity Forces Block Anti-Normalization Protests in Tripoli

Tripoli residents protest against Najla Mangoush’s meeting with Eli Cohen in Rome (AFP)
Tripoli residents protest against Najla Mangoush’s meeting with Eli Cohen in Rome (AFP)
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Libya: Unity Forces Block Anti-Normalization Protests in Tripoli

Tripoli residents protest against Najla Mangoush’s meeting with Eli Cohen in Rome (AFP)
Tripoli residents protest against Najla Mangoush’s meeting with Eli Cohen in Rome (AFP)

The interim Libyan Government of National Unity (GNU), headed by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, prevented a group of protesters from the city of Zawiya from entering Tripoli to join the widespread protests after a meeting between Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush and her Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen, in Italy.

The unity government neither denied nor confirmed reports that the dismissed minister arrived in Madrid, Spain, after fleeing the country.

Mangoush was temporarily suspended from her position over the reported meeting.

In a leaked audio message, the Interior Minister, Emad Trabelsi, informed Dbeibeh that all anti-government protests have been put to an end.

Trabelsi pointed out that the deployment of Interior Ministry forces in the capital over the past two days had not happened since 2011, since the popular uprising that toppled the regime of the late Muammar Gaddafi.

He claimed that all state institutions were secured without firing a single shot.

The Zawiya protesters accused a Public Security force, led by Trabelsi, of blocking the road to Tripoli and assaulting them.

Eyewitnesses said that late on Tuesday, government security forces blocked the road in western Tripoli on protesters coming from the city of Zawiya demanding the overthrow of the Dbeibeh government. They requested protection from the Zawiya brigades.

Several Zawiya youth called on residents of neighboring regions to join them in their march, which they began Tuesday evening to overthrow the government and called on its military leaders to protect them.

Mahmoud Hamza, the commander of the “444th Brigade” of the Dbeibeh government, ignored the youth’s request for protection against local government forces and asked them to return to their areas.

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Committee confirmed that security and military units affiliated with the unity government fired random shots to disperse the protests in several areas in the capital last Sunday and Monday.

The Committee revealed in a statement that several protesters had been arrested without legal procedures, saying the Interior Ministry is fully responsible for ensuring the safety of the demonstrators, and called on the Public Prosecutor to investigate these incidents.

Dbeibeh ignored the developments and appeared at a family wedding in his hometown of Misrata, along with some ministers.

Local media accused the Dbeibeh family of “deliberately provoking the Libyans” by broadcasting video clips of the ceremony, saying they were squandering people’s money and ignoring the popular uprising calling for the government’s dismissal.

Meanwhile, the former Chairman of the High Council of State, Khalid al-Mishri, said that the Dbeibeh cabinet would do anything to remain in position, noting that he had received information that several figures affiliated with the government made efforts to communicate with Israeli intelligence.

However Mishri indicated that he could not take a political position based on leaked information because they lacked evidence.

Furthermore, the Speaker, Aguila Saleh, announced a categorical rejection of any attempts at normalizing diplomatic ties with Israel.

Saleh denounced during a phone call with the President of the Palestinian National Council, Rawhi Fattouh, the outrageous attempts at normalization, extending an invitation to Fattouh to visit Libya.

Special Envoy of the French President to Libya, Paul Soler, affirmed France’s support for Libya’s sovereignty and the mediation efforts of Ambassador Abdallah Batelli, aiming to hold presidential and legislative elections as soon as possible.

Head of the Presidential Council Mohamed Menfi announced that he had received a French invitation to participate in a meeting at the peace conference in Paris next November.

During a meeting with Soler, Menfi stressed the Council’s endeavor to end the transitional stages through transparent elections, with the participation of all Libyans.

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Sudanese Return to their Homeland, Hoping for Stability but Finding it Still Wrecked by War

A view of one of the displacement sites in Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan April 27, 2025. WFP/Mohamed Galal/Handout via REUTERS
A view of one of the displacement sites in Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan April 27, 2025. WFP/Mohamed Galal/Handout via REUTERS
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Sudanese Return to their Homeland, Hoping for Stability but Finding it Still Wrecked by War

A view of one of the displacement sites in Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan April 27, 2025. WFP/Mohamed Galal/Handout via REUTERS
A view of one of the displacement sites in Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan April 27, 2025. WFP/Mohamed Galal/Handout via REUTERS

Ahmed Abdalla sat on a sidewalk in downtown Cairo, waiting for a bus that will start him on his journey back to Sudan. He doesn't know what he'll find in his homeland, wrecked and still embroiled in a 2-year-old war.

His wife and son, who weren't going with him, sat next to him to bid him goodbye. Abdalla plans to go back for a year, then decide whether it’s safe to bring his family.

“There is no clear vision. Until when do we have to wait?” Abdalla said, holding two bags of clothes. “These moments I’m separating from my family are really hard,” he said, as his wife broke down in tears.

Abdullah is among tens of thousands of Sudanese who were driven from their homes and are now going back. They are hoping for some stability after the military in recent months recaptured the capital, Khartoum, and other areas from its rival, the Rapid Support Forces.

But the war still rages in some parts of the country. In areas recaptured by the military, people are returning to find their neighborhoods shattered, often with no electricity and scarce food, water and services.

The battle for power between the military and the RSF has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Famine is spreading. At least 20,000 people have been killed, according to the UN, though the figure is likely higher.

Nearly 13 million people fled their homes, some 4 million of whom streamed into neighboring countries while the rest sought shelter elsewhere in Sudan.

Those returning find few services

A relatively small portion of the displaced are returning so far, but the numbers are accelerating. Some 400,000 internally displaced Sudanese have gone back to homes in the Khartoum area, neighboring Gezira province and southeast Sennar province, the International Organization for Migration estimates.

Since Jan. 1, about 123,000 Sudanese returned from Egypt, including nearly 50,000 so far in April, double the month before, the IOM said. Some 1.5 million Sudanese fled to Egypt during the war, according to UNHCR.

Nfa Dre, who had fled to northern Sudan, moved back with his family to Khartoum North, a sister city of the capital, right after the military retook it in March.

They found decomposing bodies and unexploded ordnance in the streets. Their home had been looted.

“Thank God, we had no loss of lives, just material losses, which matter nothing compared to lives,” Dre said. Three days of work made their home inhabitable.

But conditions are hard. Not all markets have reopened and few medical services are available. Dre said residents rely on charity kitchens operated by a community activist group called the Emergency Response Rooms, or ERR. They haul water from the Nile River for cooking and drinking. His home has no electricity, so he charges his phone at a mosque with solar panels.

“We asked the authorities for generators, but they replied that they don’t have the budget to provide them,” Dre said. “There was nothing we could say.”

Aid is lacking

Salah Semsaya, an ERR volunteer, said he knew of displaced people who tried returning to Wad Madani, the capital of Gezira province, but found the basics of life so lacking that they went back to their displacement shelters.

Others are too wary to try. “They’re worried about services for their children. They’re worrying about their livelihoods,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Representative to Sudan.

Throughout the war, there has been no functional government. A military-backed transitional administration was based in Port Sudan, on the Red Sea coast, but had little reach or resources. After retaking Khartoum, the military said it will establish a new interim government.

The UN is providing cash assistance to some. UNICEF managed to bring several trucks of supplies into Khartoum. But aid remains limited, “and the scale of needs far exceeds available resources,” said Assadullah Nasrullah, communications officer at UNHCR Sudan.

Darfur and other areas remain violent

Sudanese in Egypt wrestle with the question of whether to return. Mohamed Karaka, who has been in Cairo with his family for nearly two years, told The Associated Press he was packing up to head back to the Khartoum area. But at the last minute, his elder brother, also in Egypt, decided it was not yet safe and Karaka canceled the trip.

“I miss my house and the dreams I had about building a life in Sudan. My biggest problem are my children. I didn’t want to raise them outside Sudan, in a foreign country,” said Karaka.

Hundreds of Sudanese take the two or three buses each day for southern Egypt, the first leg in the journey home.

Abdalla was among a number of families waiting for the midnight bus earlier this month.

He’s going back to Sudan but not to his hometown of el-Fasher in North Darfur province. That area has been and remains a brutal war zone between RSF fighters and army troops. Abdalla and his family fled early in the war as fighting raged around them.

“We miss every corner of our house. We took nothing with us when we left except two changes of clothes, thinking that the war would be short,” Abdalla’s wife, Majda, said.

“We hear bad news about our area every single day," she said. "It’s all death and starvation.”

Abdalla and his family first moved to el-Gadarif in southeast Sudan before moving to Egypt in June.

He was heading back to el-Gadarif to see if it’s livable. Many of the schools there are closed, sheltering displaced people. If stability doesn’t take hold and schooling doesn’t resume, he said, his children will remain in Egypt.

“This is an absurd war,” Abdalla said. He pointed out how the RSF and military were once allies who together repressed Sudan’s pro-democracy movement before they turned on each other. “Both sides were unified at some point and hit us. When they started to differ, they still hit us,” he said.

“We only want peace and security and stability.”