You would like to hear that it is a satirical article but instead this is normal chronicle in the Libya after Gaddafi.
It was the gesture of a mischievous monkey, which has ripped the veil to a girl, the spark that triggered a spiral of unprecedented violence between rival tribes in southern Libya. At least 21 dead and over 60 wounded, including women and children, the report of four days fighting erupted last week in Sabha. Everything started after the “aggression” of a monkey, who belonged to a merchant of the Gaddadfa tribe (for instance, the tribe of the former Libyan leader Muhammar Gaddafi), against school girls passing in front of his shop.
The animal has ripped the veil to a young girl, then scratched and bitten her in the face. A gesture that broke the fragile balance between the two communities. The immediate reaction of the family of the girl, of the Awlad Suleiman tribe, who have taken up arms and killed three members of the opposite community along with, of course, the small “very wicked” animal. But in the days following the accident, the situation degenerated.
In Libya the situation is out of control
The two tribes have passed to harsh measures and have faced each other with tanks, rockets, mortars and other heavy weapons, causing a real slaughter. “The situation is very bad – said the deputy Ibrahim Mesbah el Hadi – the equipment needed by the hospital is lacking and the schools are closed.” According to the same source the Presidential Council would have sent a plane to treat the wounded and it is in the process of sending a force to maintain security and help the tribal leaders to reconcile.
For several years, relations between the two communities are marked by strong tensions. Contrasts that also involved other groups like that exploded violently last year between the Tuareg and the Tebu in the southeast. Since the fall of Gaddafi in 2011, Sabha became one of the centers specialized in the illegal trade in arms trafficking and migrants. In other words almost a no man’s land, where lack effective security control by the central authorities.
It is a civil war that often goes unnoticed in front of conflicts that instead exacerbate the north of the country where are active groups linked with ISIS or that identify with Al Qaeda, which now fight daily with the forces of Tripoli and those of the general Khalifa Haftar.
Source: Secolo d’Italia