Libya's coastal city of Sirte, home town of late ruler Moammar al-Gaddafi and a strategic gateway to oil export ports, is now at the center of tensions between rival forces.
On Friday, Libya's warring Tripoli-based Government of National Accord and east based-administration announced in separate statements they would cease all hostilities and organize nationwide elections.
But the promised ceasefire leaves the fate of Sirte hanging in the balance, reported AFP.
Sirte had been held by GNA forces since December 2016 when they ousted ISIS extremists after six months of fighting.
Sirte lies on the Mediterranean coast, roughly halfway between Tripoli in the west and Libya's second city Benghazi in the east, and just 300 kilometers (190 miles) from the shores of Italy. It is also a mere 150 kilometers west of Libya's main oil export terminals.
Sirte consisted of several villages spread along the coast with a mostly rural population, including cattle breeders, farmers and a few craftsmen.
Most of its people belong to four major tribes, including the Kadhadfa tribe of Gaddafi, the powerful and large Werfalla who populate the west, the Forjane and the Magariha who were closest to the Gaddafi regime.
Before the uprising, the city had a population of around 120,000, but after years of conflict only about 50,000 remain.
Gaddafi was born in Sirte in 1942 and made great efforts to turn the city into the capital of his "Jamahiriya" -- a "state of the masses" run by local committees.
He created a new province around Sirte in addition to the three existing regions of Cyrenaica in the east, Fezzan in the south, and Tripolitania in the west.
In the 1990s, he ordered ministries to be created in the coastal city, and even set up a parliament there, but eventually gave up on his plans.