Second split threatened in Libya

A LIBYAN tribe has threatened to declare a separate state in the country’s south after days of bloody battles with a rival tribe, the second such move toward secession this month.

Tribal leaders in eastern Libya announced earlier that they were considering forming an autonomous state.

Yesterday, tribesmen in the south, echoing some of the same complaints, also threatened to split from Libya’s central government in Tripoli. The conflict is between the African Tabu tribe and Arab tribes in southern Libya, including the Abu Seif tribe in Sabha and Zwiya in Kufra, near the Chad border.

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Fighting between Tabu and Abu Seif tribes in the past three days has left more than 50 dead in Sabha. Eissa Abdul-Maged, a Tabu leader, said his tribe is subjected to “genocide” but that the Libyan government in Tripoli has not intervened.

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