TRIPOLI: The army has no control over Bani Walid, one of the last bastions of Muammar Qaddafi’s regime, according to Libya’s defense minister. He said that armed groups there prevent families from returning home.
“The chief of staff has no control over the town and therefore armed men are able to prevent families from coming back,” Osama Al-Jueili told journalists in Tripoli, adding that “gunmen” hold a checkpoint leading to the town.
Fighting in Bani Walid this month displaced tens of thousands of people, Jueili noted, including 30,000 who fled to the nearby town of Tarhuna and 10,000 who went to the capital.
“The town is completely empty except for a small number of people who are living in tragic conditions; there is no activity; the impact of shelling is visible everywhere,” the minister said. Jueili had previously made no public statements on the situation in Bani Walid.
His bleak assessment came five days after the army chief-of-staff officially announced the end of all military operations in Bani Walid, which was branded by the authorities as a hideout for criminals and former regime loyalists.
Bani Walid, 185 km southeast of Tripoli, was one of the last towns to fall to NATO-backed rebels in the 2011 conflict that toppled and killed Qaddafi.
October’s scaled-up offensive against the oasis came in response to the death of Omran Shaaban, 22, a former rebel from the city of Misrata who was credited with capturing Qaddafi and later kidnapped in Bani Walid.
The operation was sanctioned by the new authorities and carried out by former rebel brigades linked to the army, including fighters from Misrata, which has a long history of rivalry with Bani Walid.
Meanwhile, Libya’s new prime minister yesterday presented a coalition Cabinet drawn from liberal and conservative parties to the national congress, which had rejected his predecessor’s line-up.
Ali Zeidan has said his transitional government, if approved by congress, will focus on restoring security in the oil-producing North African country where many militias have yet to disarm since last year’s overthrow of strongman Muammar Qaddafi.
Zeidan’s transitional government would replace an interim administration appointed in November after Qaddafi’s death.
Some ministers come from the liberal National Forces Alliance or the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Justice and Construction Party, the two biggest parties in the 200-member congress. Others are independents.
Aware of Libya’s sharp regional tensions, Zeidan said he had tried to strike a geographic balance among his 27 ministers.
“No region has been favored over any other,” he told congress in a televised session. “We don’t want to repeat mistakes or provoke the street.” Congress elected Zeidan prime minister this month after his predecessor, Mustafa Abushagur, lost a confidence vote on his choice of ministers, criticized inside and outside the assembly.
Libyan Army has ‘no control’ in Bani Walid
