Libyan Interior Minister Imad Trabelsi says groups will leave the capital after 10 people were killed over the weekend.
Armed groups in Tripoli have agreed to leave the Libyan capital and be replaced by regular forces, the country's interior minister said, after a series of deadly clashes.
“After a month of consultations, we reached an agreement with the security groups that they will leave the capital soon,” Imad Trabelsi, a member of Libya's internationally recognized government, said Wednesday.
“There will only be city police, emergency police and those who do criminal investigations,” he said at a news conference.
The agreement will allow the General Security Force, the Special Deterrence Force that controls eastern Tripoli, the 444 Brigade in southern Tripoli and the 111 Brigade, attached to the General Staff, to leave the capital.
The decision also affects the Stability Support Authority (SSA), a group based in the Abu Salim neighborhood, where 10 people, including members of the SSA, were murdered over the weekend.
These “security groups” evolved from the myriad militias that filled a security vacuum after the 2011 revolution that toppled former ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
They are heavily armed and equipped and are not under the direct authority of the Interior or Defense Ministries, although they receive public funding.
They operate independently and were granted special status by the prime minister and presidential council in 2021.
The groups have been most visible at roundabouts and major street intersections, where their often masked members set up checkpoints, blocking traffic with armed armored vehicles.
They have occasionally been involved in violent clashes, including in the residential areas of Tripoli, as was the case last August between the Special Deterrence Force and Brigade 444. The fighting left 55 dead and 146 injured.
“From now on, your place is your headquarters,” Trabelsi said.
“We will only use them in exceptional circumstances for specific missions,” he said, adding that the groups' leaders “have shown that they understand this.”
“After Tripoli, the time will come for the other cities, where there will be no more checkpoints or more armed groups” on public roads, he said.
Libya has been hit by armed conflict and political chaos since the 2011 uprising.
The country is divided between the Tripoli-based internationally recognized government led by interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in the west and an administration in the east backed by renegade general Khalifa Haftar.
