Libya's prime minister asserts control after deadly Tripoli violence
The Emergency Medicine and Support Centre confirmed it retrieved six bodies from the Tripoli neighbourhood of Abu Salim on Tuesday, after heavy fighting erupted across the capital the previous night and into the early morning. Explosions and gunfire echoed through the southern part of the city as rival armed factions clashed for several hours.
The fighting stemmed from the killing of al-Kikli, commander of the Stability Support Authority, SSA, on Monday by a rival militia, a senior government and health official told the Associated Press news agency.
An official and local media say al-Kikli was killed during a meeting at the 444 Brigade's base, a group loyal to Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah.
Al-Kikli had been accused by Amnesty International of war crimes and other serious rights violations over the past decade.
Libya analyst Jalel Harchaoui told the AFP news agency that al-Kikli had been ambushed, citing a relative. 'Among Tripoli's most successful armed group leaders,' he was known for outmanoeuvring the prime minister, the analyst added.
On Tuesday, Dbeibah declared a military operation had dismantled 'irregular' armed groups. The move is seen as a direct effort to reassert state authority and strengthen his position in the capital.
'Gheniwa was de facto king of Tripoli,' Tarek Megerisi of the European Council on Foreign Relations told Reuters. 'His henchmen controlled the internal security agency … cash transfers from the central bank… numerous public companies and ministries'.
Al-Kikli's forces reportedly operated prisons and held influence over ministries and financial institutions, underscoring a significant shift in the balance of power with his death.
Clashes also spread beyond the capital, with fighting between Tripoli-based groups and rival militias from Misrata, a key coastal city to the east. Authorities imposed a temporary curfew before later announcing that calm had returned.
Libya, a major oil producer and key route for immigrants and refugees crossing the Mediterranean, remains deeply divided between Dbeibah's UN-recognised administration in the west and a rival eastern government aligned with military commander Khalifa Haftar.
Foreign powers including Turkiye, Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates continue to back opposing sides in the ongoing power struggle.
Dbeibah said a 'military operation' had restored calm and asserted the government's authority. 'What was accomplished today shows that official institutions are capable of protecting the homeland and preserving the dignity of its citizens,' he wrote on X, praising the armed forces' role.
Schools across parts of the capital have been closed until further notice.
The UN mission in Libya expressed alarm over the use of heavy weapons in densely populated areas, warning that 'attacks on civilians and civilian objects may amount to war crimes' and calling on all sides to 'immediately cease fighting'.
Libya plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The oil-rich nation has been governed for most of the past decade by rival governments in eastern and western Libya, each backed by an array of fighter groups and foreign governments.
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Al Jazeera
11-07-2025
- Al Jazeera
Greek MPs approve suspension of asylum claims despite criticism
Greece has suspended the processing of asylum applications from people arriving by sea from North Africa for three months. The Hellenic Parliament approved the temporary measure on Friday despite strong criticism from the United Nations refugee agency and Europe's top human rights official. The suspension passed by a 177-74 vote. The ban was passed amid a surge in asylum seekers reaching the Greek island of Crete and after talks with Libya's Benghazi-based government to stem the flow were cancelled acrimoniously this week. It marks a further hardening of Greece's stance towards migrants and refugees under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's centre-right government, which has built a fence at its northern land borders and boosted sea patrols since it came to power in 2019. Mitsotakis announced the suspension plans in parliament on Wednesday during an uptick of arrivals. An estimated 2,000 migrants and refugees had landed on Crete since the weekend, leading to anger among local authorities and tourism operators. 'Greece will suspend the examination of asylum applications, initially for three months, for those arriving in Greece from North Africa by sea,' Mitsotakis said. 'Migrants who enter the country illegally will be arrested and detained,' he added. Mitsotakis said Greece's navy and coastguard were willing to cooperate with Libyan authorities to keep refugee boats from leaving the country's territorial waters or to turn them back before entering Greek waters. Sea arrivals of people departing from northeastern Libya and trying to reach Europe via Greece's southern islands of Crete and Gavdos have exceeded 7,300 so far this year, according to estimates by the Greek government and aid organisations. In contrast, total arrivals in 2024 stood at about 5,000. The sharp increase has strained both islands, which lack formal reception centres and have faced difficulties in securing temporary accommodation. The migrants and asylum seekers mainly come from the Middle East and North Africa, including nationals from Sudan and Egypt, and also countries that include Bangladesh. 'Illegal' Greece's move drew sharp criticism from human rights organisations. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed 'deep concern'. While acknowledging Greece's right to manage its borders, the UNHCR said border controls 'must be in line with international and European law'. Michael O'Flaherty, the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, also condemned Athens's response, arguing it 'would legalise returning people to face a risk of torture and other serious violations, in breach of [Greece's international] obligations'. In a statement on social media on Wednesday, the Greek Council for Refugees demanded that there be no suspension of asylum, calling it 'illegal' and a violation of international law. The group accused the government of using the increased influx of migrants and refugees as an 'excuse', saying it 'only demonstrates Greece's inability to guarantee basic fundamental rights'. Greece rescued about 520 people off Gavdos early on Wednesday and was taking them to the mainland, the Greek coastguard said. The Mediterranean nation was on the front line of the 2015-2016 migration crisis when more than one million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa crossed into Europe.
Al Jazeera
11-07-2025
- Al Jazeera
Trump's African summit was a masterclass in modern colonial theatre
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The optics revealed the incoherence – or perhaps the honesty – of Trump's Africa policy, where partnership is conditional and often indistinguishable from punishment. Trump opened the summit with a four-minute speech in which he claimed the five invited leaders were representing the entire African continent. Never mind that their countries barely register in US-Africa trade figures; what mattered was the gold, oil, and minerals buried beneath their soil. He thanked 'these great leaders… all from very vibrant places with very valuable land, great minerals, great oil deposits, and wonderful people'. He then announced that the US was 'shifting from AID to trade' because 'this will be far more effective and sustainable and beneficial than anything else that we could be doing together.' At that moment, the illusion of diplomacy collapsed, and the true nature of the meeting was revealed. Trump shifted from statesman to showman, no longer merely hosting but asserting control. The summit quickly descended into a cringe-inducing display, where Africa was presented not as a continent of sovereign nations but as a rich expanse of resources, fronted by compliant leaders performing for the cameras. This was not a dialogue but a display of domination: A stage-managed production in which Trump scripted the scene and African heads of state were cast in subordinate roles. Trump was in his element, orchestrating the event like a puppet master, directing each African guest to play his part and respond favourably. He 'invited' (in effect, instructed) them to make 'a few comments to the media' in what became a choreographed show of deference. President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani of Mauritania led the way, both physically and symbolically, by praising Trump's 'commitment' to Africa. The claim was as misleading as it was surreal, given Washington's recent aid cuts, punitive tariffs, and tightened visa restrictions on African nations. In one especially embarrassing moment, Ghazouani described Trump as the world's top peacemaker – crediting him, among other things, with stopping 'the war between Iran and Israel'. This praise came with no mention of the US's continued military and diplomatic support for Israel's war on Gaza, which the African Union has firmly condemned. The silence amounted to complicity, a calculated erasure of Palestinian suffering for the sake of American favour. Perhaps mindful of the tariffs looming over his own country, Ghazouani, who served as AU Chair in 2024, slipped into the role of a willing supplicant. He all but invited Trump to exploit Mauritania's rare minerals, praised him and declared him a peacemaker while ignoring the massacres of tens of thousands of innocents in Gaza made possible by the very weapons Trump provides. This tone would define the entire sit-down. One by one, the African leaders offered Trump glowing praise and access to their countries' natural resources – a disturbing reminder of how easily power can script compliance. Senegal's President Bassirou Diomaye Faye even asked Trump to build a golf course in his country. Trump declined, opting instead to compliment Faye's youthful appearance. Gabon's President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema talked of 'win-win partnerships' with the US, but received only a lukewarm response. What did capture Trump's attention was the English fluency of Liberia's President Joseph Boakai. Ignoring the content of Boakai's remarks, Trump marvelled at his 'beautiful' English and asked, 'Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Where were you educated? Where? In Liberia?' That Trump seemed unaware English is Liberia's official language, and has been since its founding in 1822 as a haven for freed American slaves, was perhaps less shocking than the colonial tone of his question. 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Africans who 'master' the coloniser's language are often seen not as complex, multilingual intellectuals, but as subordinates who've absorbed the dominant culture. They are rewarded for proximity to whiteness, not for intellect or independence. Trump's remarks revealed his belief that articulate and visually appealing Africans are an anomaly, a novelty deserving momentary admiration. By reducing both Boakai and Veras to aesthetic curiosities, he erased their agency, dismissed their achievements, and gratified his colonial ego. More than anything, Trump's comments on Boakai reflected his deeper indifference to Africa. They stripped away any illusion that this summit was about genuine partnership. Contrast this with the US-Africa Leaders Summit held by President Joe Biden in December 2022. That event welcomed more than 40 African heads of state, as well as the African Union, civil society, and private sector leaders. It prioritised peer-to-peer dialogue and the AU's Agenda 2063 – a far cry from Trump's choreographed spectacle. How the Trump administration concluded that five men could represent the entire continent remains baffling, unless, of course, this wasn't about representation at all, but control. Trump didn't want engagement; he wanted performance. And sadly, his guests obliged. In contrast to the tightly managed meeting Trump held with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on July 8, the lunch with African leaders resembled a chaotic, tone-deaf sideshow. Faye was especially disappointing. He came to power on the back of an anti-imperialist platform, pledging to break with neocolonial politics and restore African dignity. Yet at the White House, he bent the knee to the most brazen imperialist of them all. Like the others, he failed to challenge Trump, to assert equality, or to defend the sovereignty he so publicly champions at home. In a moment when African leaders had the chance to push back against a resurgent colonial mindset, they instead bowed – giving Trump space to revive a 16th-century fantasy of Western mastery. For this, he offered a reward: He might not impose new tariffs on their countries, he said, 'because they are friends of mine now'. Trump, the 'master', triumphed. All the Africans had to do was bow at his feet. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Al Jazeera
10-07-2025
- Al Jazeera
Is suspending asylum requests the right way to curb immigration?
Athens warns it will now arrest people entering Greece without authorisation from North Africa. Greece has suspended asylum applications for people arriving by sea for three months. That has come about after a large rise in the number of people crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to the Greek island of Crete. list of 3 items list 1 of 3 list 2 of 3 list 3 of 3 end of list Athens wants to stop their boats from even entering Greek waters. Human rights groups said denying them asylum is against international law. So can a change in policy really stop people heading to Europe? Are North African countries able to help in reducing the number of boats? And what are the likely outcomes of this suspension? Presenter: Adrian Finighan Guests: Eleni Spathana – lawyer with Refugee Support Aegean and author of Legal Assistance for Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Greece Amine Snoussi – political analyst and journalist Marianna Karakoulaki – researcher at Birmingham University focusing on forced migration on Europe's Eastern Mediterranean migratory route
