Libya Parliament Suspends Session without Crisis Breakthrough

The polling station doors are closed after the elections were postponed by a month by the High National Elections Commission in Benghazi, Libya December 24, 2021. (Reuters)
The polling station doors are closed after the elections were postponed by a month by the High National Elections Commission in Benghazi, Libya December 24, 2021. (Reuters)
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Libya Parliament Suspends Session without Crisis Breakthrough

The polling station doors are closed after the elections were postponed by a month by the High National Elections Commission in Benghazi, Libya December 24, 2021. (Reuters)
The polling station doors are closed after the elections were postponed by a month by the High National Elections Commission in Benghazi, Libya December 24, 2021. (Reuters)

Libya's parliament on Tuesday suspended its session until next week without a vote on any of the proposals raised on Monday for handling the fallout of last week's delayed election.

The session in Tobruk on Monday and Tuesday represented a first effort by Libya's fractured political class to chart a way forward after the election was delayed following disputes over the rules.

However, Monday's session broke up amid shouted arguments after various proposals were raised to push back the election date, look at restructuring the Government of National Unity (GNU) and consider constitutional changes.

Tuesday's session had been expected to include votes on those proposals. The parliament spokesman did not give any immediate reason for the suspension of the session.

It leaves in the balance both the electoral process and the future of the interim GNU and Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah.

Dbeibah's eligibility as a presidential candidate was a major cause of disagreement in the run-up to the election.

On Monday UN special envoy Stephanie Williams told Reuters that the main focus should be on moving forward with elections that were wanted by a majority of Libyans.

Simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections were conceived last year through a UN-backed political roadmap as part of a plan to end a decade of chaos and violence since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted Moammar al-Gaddafi.

The parliament was elected in 2014 but split soon afterwards as the country divided between warring eastern and western factions, with most of the chamber relocating from the capital Tripoli to Tobruk and backing the eastern side in the conflict.

This week's session was one of the rare moments since 2014 that brought together more than 100 parliament members drawn from across the fragmented political scene to take part in a debate and vote on Libya's future.



Sudanese City Pounded as Analysts Report 'Unprecedented' Combat

Displaced Sudanese in front of their tent at a United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) camp in Gallabat on the Ethiopian border -- the UN says millions of people have been uprooted by Sudan's war - AFP
Displaced Sudanese in front of their tent at a United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) camp in Gallabat on the Ethiopian border -- the UN says millions of people have been uprooted by Sudan's war - AFP
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Sudanese City Pounded as Analysts Report 'Unprecedented' Combat

Displaced Sudanese in front of their tent at a United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) camp in Gallabat on the Ethiopian border -- the UN says millions of people have been uprooted by Sudan's war - AFP
Displaced Sudanese in front of their tent at a United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) camp in Gallabat on the Ethiopian border -- the UN says millions of people have been uprooted by Sudan's war - AFP

Heavy fighting on Saturday shook a Sudanese city besieged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), witnesses told AFP, as US researchers reported unprecedented and escalating combat in the North Darfur state capital.

El-Fasher is one of five state capitals in Sudan's western Darfur region and the only one not in the hands of the RSF, who have been battling the regular army since April 2023.

The United Nations says the war across much of Sudan has created the world's largest displacement crisis, with millions uprooted, and has led to famine at a displacement camp near El-Fasher.

Darfur has seen some of the war's worst atrocities, and the RSF has besieged El-Fasher since May.

"Neighbourhoods are completely deserted and all you can hear are explosions and missiles," Ibrahim Ishaq, 52, told AFP.

"The central market area has become unliveable because of the intensity of the explosions," said Ishaq, who fled westward from the city on Friday.

Witnesses reported army bombardment south and east of the city on Saturday and said they heard air-defence batteries firing.

The Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab said in a report Friday that its analysis confirmed "unprecedented large-scale combat operations" in El-Fasher within the previous 10 days, "with significant escalation in the past 36 hours" involving both the army and the RSF.

It cited reports that describe "a major multidirectional RSF attack from the northern, eastern, and southern directions" on Thursday.

- 'Reduce to rubble' -

Darfur governor Mini Minawi had on Thursday said on social media platform X that the army had repelled "a large attack" by the RSF. However, RSF said they seized military sites in El-Fasher.

Using satellite imagery and other data, the Yale researchers said they found munition impacts "likely related to high-tempo aerial bombardment" from the regular army, but said other structural damage resulted from "RSF bombardment" and combat activity by both sides.

Whatever the battle's ultimate outcome, current levels of fighting "are likely to effectively reduce what is left of El-Fasher to rubble", the Yale study said.

The United States special envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello, on Saturday said on X: "We are extremely concerned about the RSF's renewed attacks."

He urged the RSF "to stop its assault".

It was not immediately possible to determine the number of victims.

Sudan's war has already killed tens of thousands of people, with some estimates as high as 150,000, according to Perriello.

In the capital Khartoum on Saturday, around 800 kilometres (500 miles) from El-Fasher, witnesses reported heavy explosions and strikes to the city's south.

Independent UN experts earlier this month appealed for deployment of an "impartial force" to be urgently deployed in Sudan for civilian protection.

Sudan's foreign ministry, loyal to the army, rejected the idea.