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By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 1 October 2014:
Fighting between members of the Awlad Suleiman and the Qaddadfa tribes has continued overnight in . . .[restrict]Sebha despite a ceasefire agreed yesterday by both sides. The 20-day truce, mediated on Monday by town elders and those from other tribes and nearby areas, including the Magarha, was supposed to include the removal all heavy weapons from the streets and a commitment to dialogue between both sides to resolve their differences.
“It is very bad,” local resident Mohamed Hussein told the Libya Herald this morning, The homes of ordinary Qaddadfa were being burnt and destroyed, he said. “I can hear the bombing.” Over 13 people had been killed since fighting reignited three days ago, he added, nine from the Awlad Suleiman, the rest from the Qaddafa. The dead and injured were being taken to hospital in Sebha as well as in Brak Al-Shatti, he said.
Only one subgroup of the Awlad Suleiman were involved, he explained, the Ashridat clan. “They are not listening” to mediators, he claimed.
The fighting, mainly in the Manshiya district on the west side of the town is said to affected services elsewhere, with banks and petrol stations staying closed as a result.
There is a history of bitter rivalry between the Awlad Suleiman and the Qaddadfa in Sebha. In January last year, a dispute over a stolen car resulted in fighting which left several people dead and wounded, and saw schools and local businesses in the area temporarily closed.
More recently, there were clashes in June in which at least eight people died and again early last month.
The Awlad Suleiman, which effectively took over as the southern town’s military force after the revolution, has also been involved in periodic but bitter clashes with Sebha’s Tebu community. [/restrict]
