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by Jamal Adel.
Kufra, 11 November 2014:
A ceasefire has been agreed between eight tribes which have been involved in multi-cornered fighting throughout . . .[restrict]the south of the country.
The deal was hammered out today in the incongruous surroundings of the Massak Tourist Camp outside Sebha. Representatives who came to the gathering were from the Magarha, Qaddadfa, Awlad Suleiman, Tebu, Tuareg, Awlad Hudair, Al-Hasawna and the Awlad Bu Saif.
“The meeting included all the southern tribes and towns” Tebu elder, Husain Shakay told the Libya Herald.
It is reported that in elders called on “third forces” the leave the region saying that the local tribes could protect it.
Shakay said: “We agreed that all tribes and towns in southern Libya should cooperate and forget our differences, for the sake of the country”.
He continued that the elders had called on the House of Representatives to restore the police and army to the region. They had set up a committee to drive this appeal home to legislators.
Overcoming the political differences and tribal rivalries with which the south of the country is riven is likely to pose a major challenge. However, the fact that all the key players have been prepared to meet and agree a halt to the fighting, may be a reflection of a more general concern at the level of violence and destruction that has gripped the region since October.
Shakay said that the meeting had also produced a specific ceasefire agreement between the Tebu and Tuareg. It appears that some of the recent fighting, particularly in Obari, has involved a Tuareg militia from the northern Mali province of Azawad, which had entered southern Libya through Niger or perhaps Algeria. Local Tuaregs have not necessarily taken part in the conflict. It is understood that a Tuareg tribal leader from Azawad was involved in the negotiations that led to today’s ceasefire deal.
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