Photo: Miguela XuerebLibyan news reports claiming that Abdul Hamid Dbeibah – prime minister of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity – has fled to Malta after violent clashes erupted in the Libyan capital are being denied by Malta.
Clashes broke out in Libya on Monday after the assassination of Abdel Ghani al-Kikli, commander of the Stability Support Apparatus, reportedly by the 444th Infantry Brigade. Both the SSA and 444th are ostensibly affiliated with the GNU, but rivalries within Libya’s fragmented security forces are not unprecedented.
A key Islamist militia unaligned with the GNU – the RADA Special Deterrence Forces – has also joined the fray, with protests against Dbeibah and his government taking place in the Tripoli neighbourhoods under their control.
In this context, Malta acted to evacuate 38 Maltese nationals from Tripoli on Thursday, an evacuation which it said was carried out with the help of Libyan security forces.
Malta has sought to cultivate close ties with the GNU, with the government seemingly prioritising Libya’s role in blocking asylum seekers from reaching Europe, human rights concerns notwithstanding.
It is in this context that reports of Dbeibah fleeing to Malta have surfaced, but Malta has issued a categorical denial through its embassy in Tripoli.
The embassy said that it could confirm that no Libyan official had reached Malta through diplomatic authorisation over the past few days.
It decried fake news which it said sought to undermine what it described as the “good relations which have always united the Maltese and Libyan people.”
