Libya: Child killed by shell on revolution anniversary 

A child was killed and others injured when a shell from an unknown source landed on a group of people celebrating the Libyan revolution’s tenth anniversary in Sabha, south of the country.

“The city witnessed a horrific crime on Tuesday, as a shell bomb fell on a group celebrating the tenth anniversary of the revolution in the Mansheya area,” announced the spokesperson for the Municipal Council in Sabha, Osama Al-Wafi.

Al-Wafi told the Anadolu Agency reporter on Wednesday that the attack caused the death of a child and wounded more than ten others, most of them children.

He pointed out: “Up to now, the injured are being treated at the Sabha Medical Centre, and if they are not stabilised, it means that there is no alternative but to transfer them to the capital, Tripoli, given the deteriorating medical services in southern Libya.”

Al-Wafi added that the source of the shell is not yet known, noting that the relevant authorities have opened an investigation into the attack.

A popular revolution overthrew the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on 17 February, 2011, before the country entered into a long political struggle over power. Figures affiliated with the former regime, most notably General Khalifa Haftar, sought to seize power and overthrow the internationally-recognised government.

However, the anniversary of the revolution comes this year in light of a breakthrough in the Libyan conflict, as members of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) on 5 February elected a temporary executive authority, until elections are held at the end of the year.

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