Libyan PM says cease-fire ends tribal violence

Violence that killed more than 150 people this week in Libya has ended thanks to a government-backed cease-fire, that country’s prime minister said today.

Abdel Rahim al-Kib said “calm now prevails in Sabha,” the southern Libyan city near the center of tribal clashes that started Monday, Agence France-Presse reported.

“We announce that reconciliation efforts have resulted in an accord on a ceasefire,” Kib told AFP.

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The truce came as 16 people died today, and dozens wounded, AFP said.

The fighting is between the Tabu and Arab Abu Seif tribes, The Associated Press reported, and illustrates the country’s fragile condition since Muammar Gaddafi’s ouster last year.

Libya’s National Transitional Council is struggling to maintain peace with a emerging armed forces and police, and local militias, the AP said.

Weapons are flowing across borders in Libya, CNN reported.

The military there attempted to control the violence by taking over the airport and other key locations in Sabha, government representative Nasser al-Manaa told CNN.

“It is critical that the government and all sides take steps to further de-escalate the situation and address the underlying causes of this recent fighting,” Manaa said. “The military intervention in the area is not an act of war, but it is to restore order. They have succeeded.”

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