Libyan Toubou tribal leader declares separatist bid

Fierce fighting erupted Monday in the city of Sabha The head of the Toubou tribe in Libya on Tuesday denounced what he said was a plan to “ethnically cleanse” his people, and raised the threat of a separatist bid, a day after deadly clashes. “We announce the reactivation of the Toubou Front for the Salvation of Libya (TFSL, an opposition group active under the former regime) to protect the Toubou people from ethnic cleansing,” Issa Abdel Majid Mansur told AFP.
“If necessary, we will demand international intervention and work towards the creation of a state, as in South Sudan,” he said after more than 10 people were reported killed in clashes in the southern oasis city of Sabha.
Fierce fighting erupted Monday in the city of Sabha, southern Libya, (750 kilometres from Tripoli), between armed groups from the Toubou tribes and the city's inhabitants .
Sources said theclashes resulted in at least 20 deaths and more than 30 injuries, adding that the city had witnessed an intense campaign by a number of gunmen and others from revolutionary battalions.
The sources mentioned that another armed group from the Toubou tribe stormed the central hospital in Sabha, threatening those who were inside with their weapons.
A local doctor, Ibrahim Misbah, said on Monday that 20 fighters died of gunshot wounds and more than 40 people were wounded.
Local council member Ahmed Abdelkadir said clashes first broke out on Sunday between former rebel fighters from Sabha, Libya's fourth largest city, and gunmen from the Tibu tribe after a Sabha man was killed in a dispute over a car.
He said the militias opened fire at each other on the outskirts of Sabha.
"The numbers are from the Sabha side only. The Toubou wounded are being taken to a different hospital," Misbah said by phone.
Sabha fighter Oweidat al-Hifnawi said the fighting centred around the airport road and that at one point Toubou fighters controlled the entrance of the airport.
"The airport is now under our control but it is not functioning at the moment," Hifnawi said.
A witness added that the tail of an airplane on the tarmac was hit in the fighting. Dib said the fighting broke out when the Toubou refused to hand over to local authorities one of their men accused of killing a man belonging to the Bussif tribe.
A member of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), Mukhtar al-Jadal, confirmed there had been fighting in Sabha, an oasis city in southern Libya, and said that NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil had met representatives from the south in an effort to broker a solution.
A local source said Toubou tribesmen who had been in "brigades of former rebels have defected and rejoined their own" people, adding that "some elements from Chad are fighting with the Toubou."
Toubou tribesmen have also been involved in deadly clashes with another tribe in the Saharan oasis of Kufra, where two ethnic groups are locked in a standoff over smuggling.
The Toubou are traditionally oasis farmers who also have connections beyond Libya's borders.
Sources also said that skirmishes broke out between brigades following the Zintan battalions and a number of Tuareg revolutionaries in Ubari.
Meanwhile, an official source in the local council of Tarhuna city (88 kilometres from the capital) denied that there were clashes between Gaddafi loyalists and the city's revolutionaries. The source said the issue was just a quarrel between two people, where consequent gunfire killed one and wounded another. The al-Awfiyaa battalion was said to be in full control of the situation and deployed throughout the city in order to maintain security.
The clashes come as the NTC struggles to assert its authority across Libya, where rival militias and tribal groups are jostling for power and resources following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
The NTC is hampered by the lack of a coherent national army and has struggled to persuade the myriad militias who fought Gaddafi to put down their guns and join the armed forces and police.
"The situation is very dangerous and sensitive. We are following the situation and the army chief is working on sending a defence team to Sabha," deputy interior minister Omar al-Khadrawi told Libyan television.
NTC chief Jalil agreed on Monday with critics that his government is not providing strong enough leadership.
"I am not satisfied with the performance of the government or the NTC, because it is too slow in making decisions and is weak and lacks confidence in its decision making," Jalil told The Associated Press news agency during a visit to the eastern city of Benghazi.
Last month dozens of people were killed in days of clashes between tribes in the far southeastern province of Al Kufra.
Government security forces eventually intervened to stop the fighting in a rare example of the Tripoli bureaucracy imposing its authority.
Abdul-Jalil said incompetent ministers may be dismissed in the coming months, but he gave no specifics.
A 200-member assembly to be elected in June has the job of appointing new cabinet ministers.