At least four civilians have been killed in a suspected militant attack in northern Mali over the weekend, local officials said Sunday.

An unknown number of the attackers were also killed in fighting as the “suspected militants killed at least four civilians around Talataye,” a northeastern town of around 14,000 people, regional officials told AFP.

Mali’s deteriorating security situation is of growing concern as al-Qaeda-linked groups mount increasingly deadly attacks on domestic and foreign forces.

In the Talataye area the militants often target an Azawad group, the traditionally nomadic Tuareg people of the desert, who they consider too close to a pro-governmental armed group, another elected local official said.

Civilians considered too close to the Azawad group are, in turn, considered legitimate targets, he added.

According to a Mali security source, the assailants took hostages during Friday’s attacks, and killed at least one of them on Saturday.

On Sunday tension remained high in and around Talataye, a foreign security source told AFP.

Friday’s attack came after Mali’s army decided to ban the use of scooters and pick-up trucks in some areas to boost their fight against armed militant groups.

Such vehicles are often used by extremist fighters, in the north and the center of the country.

The ban applies to a dozen “circles” in the central regions of Segou and Mopti and northwest Timbuktu region.

“Humanitarian convoys, and all other convoys, must receive authorization from the local military command in order to receive an escort,” the army said, adding that anyone failing to do so would be considered a “military target”.

In late January, 14 soldiers were killed and 18 more wounded in an attack on their camp in Mali’s restive north.

That attack in Soumpi, in the Timbuktu region, came two days after 26 civilians including mothers and babies were killed when their vehicle ran over a landmine in Boni, central Mali, according to a UN death toll.

Extremists linked to al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

In June 2015, Mali’s government signed a peace agreement with coalitions of non-militant armed groups. But extremist insurgents remain active, and large tracts of the country are lawless.

“Humanitarian convoys, and all other convoys, must receive authorization from the local military command in order to receive an escort,” the army said, adding that anyone failing to do so would be considered a “military target”.

(Source: AFP)

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana SAN has sent an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari asking him to “bring back naturalized Nigerians, Refugees and Asylum Seekers who were illegally arrested, detained and deported from to Cameroon on Friday, January 26, 2018 by the National Security Adviser, Major-General Babagana Monguno (retd).”

In the open letter today Falana said “We write this protest letter on behalf of our clients whose names and status are set out in the List of Deportees attached to this letter.”

According to Falana, “Our clients are not illegal immigrants in Nigeria. Three of them are naturalized Nigerian citizens while others are recognized refugees and political asylum seekers in Nigeria.”

The letter read in part: “Twelve of our clients who are the leaders of the people of Southern Cameroon and who have been living in Nigeria for several years were assembled for a meeting at Nera Hotel, Abuja on Saturday, January 6, 2018 to discuss the challenges faced by the over 10,000 Cameroonians who have sought political asylum in Nigeria due to persecution and repression under the Paul Biya regime in Cameroon.”

“But before the commencement of the meeting a team of armed security personnel invaded the venue, abducted our clients and took them away to an undisclosed place. The said abduction was reported by the Premium Times edition of Sunday, January 7, 2018.”

“In spite of the detailed report of the credible online news medium the Police and the security agencies denied knowledge of the abduction of our clients. Consequently, all efforts made by the lawyers, doctors and family members of our clients to visit them in custody were frustrated without any legal justification. Even Mrs. Nalowa Bih who is pregnant was denied medical attention by the National Security Adviser.”

“However, a representative of the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees in Nigeria was allowed to visit our clients at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the visit, the United Nations representative found that our clients were held in an underground cell at the headquarters of the Defence Intelligence Agency on the orders of the National Security Adviser.”

“On account of the refusal of the National Security Adviser to allow access to our clients by their lawyers, relatives and doctors we filed an application at the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court on Thursday, January 25, 2018 for the purpose of securing their fundamental rights to personal liberty and freedom of movement.”

“Notwithstanding the pending suit and the intervention of the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees, the National Security Adviser expelled our clients from Nigeria and deported them to Cameroon on Friday, January 26, 2018.”

“Although the National Security Adviser was ashamed to disclose the deportation of our clients from Nigeria the Government of Cameroon has celebrated the deportation and threatened to prosecute our clients for unspecified crimes. Thus, with the connivance of the National Security Adviser the Government of Cameroon has since held our clients in an undisclosed military custody in Cameroon.”

“Out of the 52 people who were expelled from Nigeria the Government of Cameroon has maintained that the National Security Adviser handed over to it 47 deportees. Up till now, the National Security Adviser has not accounted for the whereabouts of the remaining 5 detainees!”

“The National Security Adviser knew that two of our clients are naturalized Nigerians, six are refugees while 37 others are political asylum seekers who are entitled to be protected by the Federal Government of Nigeria. For the avoidance of doubt, the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees in Nigeria drew the attention of the National Security Adviser to the legal obligations of Nigeria to respect the rights of our clients.”

“Under the National Security Agencies Act (Cap N74) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and the Immigration Act 2015 the National Security Adviser is not competent to arrest, detain and deport any alien or immigrant from Nigeria to any other country.”

“Since the Government of Nigeria has never violated the provisions of the United Nations Convention Relating to Refugees and the OAU Convention on Refugees by deporting refugees and asylum seekers to any country where they might be persecuted we are compelled to urge Your Excellency to grant the following requests: Order the National Security Adviser to produce the missing 5 deportees and bring back to Nigeria our clients who have been illegally deported to Cameroon without any further delay.”

“If the National Security Adviser is unable to bring back our clients to Nigeria he should be removed from office for such brazen impunity which has exposed Nigeria to ridicule before the comity of law abiding nations. The Federal Government should prevail on the Government of Cameroon not to persecute our clients to prevent the United Nations from sanctioning Nigeria for violating the provisions of the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to Refugees.”

“You will therefore agree with us that the arrest, detention and deportation of our clients from Nigeria to Cameroon by the National Security Adviser cannot be justified on the following grounds: Based on the appeal by Nigeria for a peaceful resolution of the political crisis in Cameroon the people of Southern Cameroon filed a suit at the Federal High Court to determine whether the people of Southern Cameroon are not entitled to self-determination within their clearly defined territory separate from La Republique Du Cameroun.”

“By a consent judgment delivered by the Court on March 5, 2002, the Federal Government was directed to file a suit at the International Court of Justice to have a judicial confirmation of the human right of the people of Southern Cameroon to self determination. Attached herewith and marked annexure A is a certified true copy of the judgment.”

“The Federal Government also undertook to take other measures as may be necessary to place the case of the people of Southern Cameroon for self determination before the United Nations General Assembly and other international organizations.”

“Even though the suit has not been filed at the International Court of Justice the Federal Government has continued to recognize the human rights of our clients and other people of Southern Cameroon to self determination.”

Source: PMNEWS

The Cameroon military will soon be answering for its crimes in Manyu Division following its actions in that region. It is now emerging that after the government’s military operation in Manyu Division, many residents of the Division’s leading city are talking of mass graves in and around the city. Cameroon Concord News Group West Africa Bureau Chief, Kingsley Betek, who is currently in Mamfe, has gathered that there is a huge mass grave behind the former Council Office which is located just in front of deep valley.

Residents of the area have been advising our correspondent of the eerie sounds and cries of young men being beaten as the military sought to check the “Odeshi Boys” who were chopping down army soldiers sent from Yaounde to come and quell the rebellion in Mamfe.

“We used to see many young men being dragged to that location by angry soldiers. The boys were being maltreated and despite their plea that they were not responsible for the killing of army soldiers, government troops beat them up like animals. I know that many have been killed and dumped behind the former council office located on the way to Banya. I am prepared to testify whenever the international community comes to investigate the crimes committed by the soldiers,” a resident of Mamfe, who elected anonymity, said.

“The army is supposed to protect civilians, but when the troops came here, they beat up everybody for a crime that was committed by a few people. We do not even know those who have been killing the soldiers, but each time that happens, soldiers go on a rampage. They have completely destroyed Kembong and other surrounding villages and this makes it hard for us to go to our farms and send our children to school. It is like they are instead helping to enforce ghost town operations here,” the angry resident of Mamfe added, stressing that “government has to change its strategy. We would not be in this mess if the government had seen things differently.”

“The government does not even seem to see the folly in its actions. Intimidating and killing civilians makes it hard for the civilians to work with the police or gendarmes. For any real security to return to the environment, the government must consider the local population as its ally instead of its enemy,” he stressed.

There are also reports that there are other mass graves on the way to Eshobi, a little town some 40km from Mamfe town where government troops had set up camps, giving the impression that they wanted to construct the road. Many residents are today accusing the government of employing that strategy to hide its evil deeds in the area.

Residents of villages in Manyu Division are still bitter about the military action against them. They accuse the soldiers of having stolen their cocoa, coffee and petrol as they swept through those villages in their search for the young and determined fighters who actually gave the soldiers a run for their money.

It is alleged that huge bags of cocoa and coffee are being stocked at the Besongabang military camp and some soldiers are using this produce to make some fast money. Besides using the conflict as an excuse to enrich themselves, army soldiers are stopping business people from plying their trade in the region. Many rice exporters are being asked to give more than CFAF 2,000,000 as bribe for them to carry their products to Nigeria and this is done with the knowledge of the top military officials in the region. This is not only robbing the people of their revenue, it is also rendering many young men unemployed and these young men are those who are swelling the ranks of the dangerous fighters.

Meanwhile, the fighting in Southern Cameroons has intensified following the extradition of the Ambazonian President, Julius Ayuk Tabe, to Yaounde. Many young Southern Cameroonians have stepped up attacks on soldiers and gendarmes in a bid to express their frustration and anger.

Two gendarmes were attacked on Thursday in the North Western town of Mbingo by masked men, who shot the uniformed officers point blank, killing the male officer on the spot. The female officer is struggling for her life in the town’s main hospital.

In Bangem, a town in the Southwest region of the country, Amba Tigers have been fighting running battles with Cameroon’s military in the city’s downtown core where it is reported that an ELECAM official has been killed alongside some army soldiers. Unconfirmed reports indicate that more than four people have been killed in Bangem since the Tigers showed up to carry revenge attacks against army soldiers following the extradition of Mr. Ayuk Tabe who has become the incontestable poster child of the Southern Cameroons struggle.

It has also been reported that civilians in the town of Bangem are heading out of the town in large numbers to surrounding villages in a bid to seek refuge from army soldiers who have been attacking and killing unarmed and innocent civilians.

Other towns such Pinyin and Batibo in the Northwest region have also witnessed clashes between Ambazonian fighters and government troops. The increasing attacks had been predicted by many analysts and politicians who had posited that the arrest and extradition of Mr. Ayuk Tabe would only exacerbate things as more people would be radicalized.

Many international observers are calling on the government of Cameroon to use this moment to smoke the pipe of peace as military violence and intimidation have not produced the results the government had expected. They contend that the government must change its strategy as the current one is gradually pulling the country towards a bloody civil war that is unnecessary.

It should be recalled that the government of Cameroon which is stuck in the past is using old tactics that had been employed in the 60s against French Cameroon freedom fighters popularly known as Maquisards in the pious hope that the Southern Cameroons population will submit to its will.

Critics point out that it has unfortunately failed to understand that times have changed. People are more educated today and the existence of the Internet have made it hard for such tactics to produce the desired results. Besides, with a huge and prosperous Southern Cameroons Diaspora, it will be hard for the government of Cameroon to obtain an outright victory.

The Diaspora is propping up efforts of the young and determined fighters who sincerely hold that with a little luck they can successfully bring the government of Cameroon to the negotiating table or get Southern Cameroons out of the mess in which short-sighted politicians like Muna and Foncha had dumped the region.

The Southern Cameroons Diaspora will continue to destabilize Cameroon for a long time if the government does not make permanent dialogue a way of life in a country that was hastily stitched together by the United Nations. The Southern Cameroons Diaspora is rich and it has successfully transformed marginalization into a huge opportunity.

The government therefore stands to gain if it changes its policies to recognize the Diaspora as a strategic partner in the country’s efforts to attain sustainable levels of development.

Mr. Biya and his government must now embrace dialogue as the ideal way to pull the country from the brink. From reactions obtained following the arrest and extradition of Mr. Ayuk Tabe, it is obvious that more blood will continue to flow, as Southern Cameroonians are determined to follow through with their threat of splitting the country.

By Kingsley Betek in Mamfe

More than 80 Cameroonian soldiers, early yesterday, crossed the international border between Nigeria and Cameroun and invaded Danare in Boki Local Government Area of Cross River State, claiming they were fighting Cameroon militants who took refuge in the community. Vanguard learned that more than 3,000 refugees from Cameroun are currently taking refuge in Danare, which borders the Central African country. Army A group of Danare indigenes, led by a former councillor in Boki coucil,  Dauglas Ogar, who  addressed journalists in Calabar, yesterday,  said the gendarmes stormed their village about 2p.m., yesterday  and  started shooting, sending people running for  safety. He said: “Our people did not sleep yesterday because the gendarmes from Cameroun invaded our community claiming to be looking for Ambazonia militants.  The militants, who have since taken refuge in the surrounding forests, were also shooting and the whole community was in chaos.

“It is important to recall the sad invasion of Danare communities by  Cameroonian soldiers on January 25 this year when more than 80 well armed Cameroonian soldiers crossed the international boundary in the Danare-Daddi/Danare-Bodam international border openings and abducted five natives. “By the time they left this morning (yesterday), they said their mission was to warn residents of Danare communities to be aware of their return to carry out a military raid. “According to them, it was intended to cleanse Danare communities of all Ambazonia refugees’ threat to the Cameroon Government.

“The soldiers threatened to come back to Danare to execute the proscription of Southern Cameroonians taking asylum in Danare as a result of the ongoing Anbazonia crises which resulted in the mass influx of refugees from neighbouring Southern Cameroon villages to Danare  communities and many other Nigerian border communities. “This is a calculated offensive from Cameroon military on Nigeria. They have shown outright defiance to Nigeria’s territorial sovereignty and dammed the consequences of crossing the international boundary to carrying out all sort of intimidation and harassment on already alarmed citizens of Danare, with warnings of their further assault.”

He noted that the current situation in their community points “to how weak the Cameroon government sees Nigeria and its security consciousness. “They have weighed the vulnerability of defenceless residents of Danare and concluded that it was capable of inflicting mass death on the citizens of Nigeria and refugees of Southern Cameroon hosted in Danare.” He explained that the breach of the country’s internal security was posing a serious danger to the peace and safety of residents, the refugees and  the entire Boki communities in Nigeria. “The Paul Byia contingents are leveraging on the poor security state of Danare border and all Boki communities to hatch a well-thought out genocide,” he said.

www.vanguardngr.com

Militants have launched a fresh attack on military personnel in Mali’s lawless northern desert region, killing four soldiers.

A statement by the armed forces posted on social media on Sunday said the attack that took place earlier in the day in Menaka targeted soldiers and national guard members.

It said the attacker was “destroyed” as he was trying to detonate his explosives near the army and guard post.

“Unfortunately during this operation, four armed forces personnel lost their lives,” the statement added.

Other military sources denied reports that more than one person were behind the attack, adding that the armed forces were now “in control of the situation”.

Military helicopters operated by France, the most dominant foreign force in Mali, were hovering above the area, the sources said.

The attack was the second to rock Mali’s troubled north in the weekend. On Saturday, militants blitzed the Soumpi military camp, took control of it and killed 14 soldiers. Another 18 were wounded in the attack which came near Timbuktu, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of Menaka.

France, the former colonizing power in Mali, led a massive military operation in early 2013 to push back militants linked to al-Qaeda from the desert region. However, attacks have continued unabated on domestic and foreign forces since then while civilians living in central Mali have also been affected. A total of 26 people, including women and infants, were killed Thursday after their vehicle drove over a landmine in Boni, located outside of the desert region.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita deplored the attack which left a high civilian death toll. “All of Mali was in mourning, all of Mali is appalled,” said Keita while visiting the region instead of attending a planned regional summit.

Source: Presstv

More than 43,000 Cameroonians have fled as refugees to Nigeria to escape a crackdown by the government on Anglophone separatists, local aid officials said on Thursday.

The figure is almost three times as high as that given by the United Nations and Nigerian officials two weeks ago.

Cameroon is a majority French-speaking country but two southwestern regions bordering Nigeria are Anglophone. Last October, separatists declared independence for a state they want to create called Ambazonia, sparking a military crackdown by the government of President Paul Biya.

In Nigeria’s Cross River state, which borders southwest Cameroon, more than 33,000 Cameroonians have taken refuge from violence, John Inaku, director general of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), told Reuters by phone.

Earlier this month, the UN refugee agency had said more than 8,000 refugees were in Cross River state.

Explaining the disparity, Inaku told Reuters the UN agency was only registering people in Cross River coming in through conventional routes.

“This is a war situation and refugees are trooping in by the minute through the bush paths, rivers and every other unconventional routes open to them,” he said.

“During our advocacy to our border communities we told them to allow the refugees in and not be hostile to them so our communities have been receiving them warmly and accommodating them. These are very remote areas, hard to reach without good roads,” Inaku said.

Inaku said community facilities were becoming overstretched and so people were getting hostile toward the refugees, who were in “deplorable condition”, hungry and in need of medicine.

The Benue SEMA director general said the agency had also had difficulty counting refugees because they were in remote areas.

Early on Thursday, gunmen crossed from Nigeria to attack a border post in Cameroon’s southwest, security force witnesses said, with the incident likely to further damage relations between the neighbors.

The separatists pose the biggest challenge yet to the 35-year rule of Biya, who will seek re-election this year. The conflict is also fuelling tensions between Nigeria and Cameroon.

Cameroonian military officials and pro-government media accuse Nigeria of sheltering the insurgents, who since last year have waged a guerrilla campaign to establish an independent homeland for Cameroon’s English-speaking minority.

REUTERS

At least 14 soldiers have been killed and 17 others sustained injuries in the central Mali city of Timbuktu after unknown gunmen attacked their camp, according to military sources.

Unidentified armed men attacked the camp in the town of Soumpi at around 6 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Saturday.

“The provisional toll is 14 dead, 17 wounded and two enemies killed. The search is still on for those missing,” said one of the military sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another military source confirmed the attack, putting the death toll at “around 15.”

“The soldiers abandoned their position. The enemy carried away material,” the unnamed source said.

The attack came two days after 26 civilians were killed and several others injured when their vehicle was blown up by a mine in central Mali.

According to Malian army spokesman Colonel Diarran Kone, the vehicle had crossed the volatile border with neighboring Burkina Faso, where militants loyal to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group are known to operate, when it ran over the mine.

In a separate incident, the Malian military said its forces had come under attack in the town of Youwarou near Mopti, once a popular tourist spot, but that they had repelled it.

“They neutralized seven terrorists and recovered equipment abandoned by the assailants,” it said.

In the past three years, Takfiri forces, which had long been destabilizing the thinly populated desert north of Mali, have swept south into its wetter, more populated central regions, exploiting local conflicts to spread militancy.

Mali plunged into turmoil after President Amadou Toumani Toure was overthrown in a military coup on March 22, 2012.

The coup leaders said they staged the putsch in response to the government’s inability to contain the rebellion in the country’s north.

In January 2013, French soldiers were deployed to Mali under the pretext of putting an end to the crisis in the West African country, a former colony of France.

Unrest rages on across Mali despite the presence there of an 11,000-strong UN peacekeeping force, which has been stationed in the country since July 2013, as well as 1,000 French forces.

Source: Presstv

Thousands of asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo have fled to Burundi in the past three days over fierce fighting in the eastern parts of the country, Burundi police say.

Nearly 7,000 Congolese have crossed Lake Tanganyika and taken refuge in Burundi since Wednesday as clashes raged between DR Congo government forces and rebels in the troubled eastern province of South Kivu.

Burundi police said on Friday a total of 6,692 refugees had registered in just three days to escape fighting between the army and the Yakutumba militia, although the flow appeared to have since slowed.

“Yesterday, Lake Tanganyika seemed to be completely covered by hundreds of boats of all sizes, packed with refugees and their property, it was quite sight,” one rights activist told AFP.

Congo’s President Joseph Kabila told a press conference that the security situation in the east, much of which is in the hands of rival militias, was “worrying.”

The UN refugee agency or the Burundian authorities have not made any immediate comment about the situation yet.

The Congolese government said last week it was waging “war” against two militias in the east, the Yakutumba and the Allied Democratic Force (ADF) rebel groups.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo had one of the most brutal colonial rules before undergoing decades of corrupt dictatorship and back-to-back civil wars that left the mineral-rich country poor and politically unstable.

Dozens of armed groups have been active in the eastern DR Congo, long after the official end of a 1998-2003 war during which millions of people died, mostly of hunger and disease.

The United Nations in January warned that the Democratic Republic of the Congo was at a “breaking point,” saying this year it will seek more than $1.5 billion to respond to the worsening humanitarian crisis in the country.

“The size of the crisis in the Congo is really challenging our collective ability to respond”, said the UN migration agency’s chief envoy to the country, Jean-Philippe Chauzy.

The escalating violence in Congo’s center and east this year comes amid a political crisis in the country due to President Kabila’s refusal to leave office after his term expired in December 2016.

In 2006, the UN mission helped carry out Congo’s first free and fair elections in 46 years, paving the way for President Joseph Kabila to be elected for a five-year term.

His second term in office ended in 2016. Under the DR Congo’s constitution, Kabila is banned from seeking a third term. However, Kabila is authorized to stay in office until his successor is elected but he decided to remain in power. This prompted the UN to urge the Congolese authorities “to respect the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Congolese Constitution.”

The delay in holding an election has flared up violence in the country.

Source: Presstv

Gunmen attacked a border crossing in Cameroon’s southwest on Thursday, launching their assault from Nigeria, security source witnesses said.

No one was killed, the officials said, but the incident is likely to further damage relations between the neighbors, strained over the rise of an Anglophone Cameroonian separatist movement.

Five security and administrative agents said the unidentified gunmen launched their attack on the Ekok border post along Cross River.

“They came around 3 a.m. (0200 GMT). They came from Nigeria and there were many of them. They had heavy weapons. They had grenades. They were shooting everywhere,” said one police source, who like the other witnesses asked not to be named.

“We don’t really know how it happened,” a second security source told Reuters. “Some of these guys came from the riverside (beneath the bridge). We don’t know exactly which path they took, but all of them came from Nigeria.”

Government officials in Cameroon would not immediately comment on the attack.

Nigeria’s defense ministry spokesman said he was not aware of the incident and referred queries to the military. A Nigerian military spokesman said he was not aware of the attack but would make checks.

Cameroonian military officials and pro-government media accuse Nigeria of sheltering the insurgents, who since last year have waged a guerrilla campaign to establish an independent homeland for Cameroon’s English-speaking minority.

Reuters reported last month that Cameroonian troops crossed into Nigeria in pursuit of the rebels without seeking authorization from Nigeria, provoking a behind-the-scenes rift between two nations with a history of fraught relations.

The militaries of Cameroon and Nigeria repeatedly clashed over the disputed Bakassi peninsula in the 1980s and 90s.

The status of the territory was settled in Cameroon’s favor by The Hague-based International Court of Justice in 2002 and in recent years the two countries have cooperated extensively to stamp out the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

More than 15,000 refugees have fled to Nigeria amid Cameroonian military operations against the Anglophone separatists, the United Nations refugee agency and Nigerian government officials said earlier this month.

REUTERS

Twin car bombings outside a mosque have claimed the lives of more than 30 people and wounded dozens more in Libya’s second city Benghazi.

Security officials said on Wednesday that the bombers blew up two cars 30 minutes apart outside the mosque after evening prayers on Tuesday in the central neighborhood of al-Sleimani.

Emergency and security workers who had rushed to the scene were among those killed in the second blast.

Fadia al-Barghathi, a spokeswoman for the city’s al-Jala hospital, said that the facility received 25 dead and 51 wounded. Spokesman Khalil Gider said that the Benghazi Medical Center received nine dead and 36 wounded.

Health officials said many of the wounded were in critical condition and the death toll was likely to rise.

Military spokesman Milud al-Zwei said Ahmad al-Fituri, a security official for Khalifa Haftar forces, was also among those killed.

Benghazi has been relatively calm since military strongman Haftar announced the eastern city’s “liberation” from militants in July last year after a three-year campaign.

Haftar, who supports an administration based in the east of the country has declared three days of mourning following the attack. Haftar’s opponents accuse him of wanting to seize power and establish a military dictatorship.

A UN-backed unity government based in the capital Tripoli, the Government of National Accord (GNA) condemned the attack as a “terrorist and cowardly act.” The GNA has struggled to assert its authority outside the west.

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) strongly denounced the bombings as “horrific” and warned that “direct or indiscriminate attacks against civilians… constitute war crimes.”

The UN-backed government of Libya has yet to exert its control over much of the oil-rich North African country as a rival administration in the east and its powerful army continue to challenge Tripoli’s rule as they rely on support from some of Libya’s neighbors and certain rich Arab states.

Libya has been wracked by violence and divisions since dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and killed in a 2011 NATO-backed military invasion.

A series of fierce clashes between rival militias at Tripoli’s airport last week left 20 dead and forced the cancellation of all flights for five days.

Source: Presstv