Libya: prime minister survives assassination attempt

Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Al-Dbeibeh survived an apparent assassination attempt earlier today according to sources close to him. He managed to escape unharmed after assailants opened fire at his car in the capital Tripoli as he was returning home. The gunmen fled the scene and an investigation has been launched.

The incident happened hours before the country’s eastern-based parliament was scheduled to vote to replace Dbeibeh with a new prime minister. The attack also follows his stated intention earlier this week that he would defy the planned vote, insisting that his government remains legitimate.

“I will not allow new transitional periods,” insisted Dbeibeh said on Tuesday. “We will not retreat from our role in government that we pledged to the people until elections take place.”

A former businessman who once headed the state-owned Libyan Investment and Development Company during the rule of late leader Muammar Gaddafi, Dbeibeh was appointed as interim prime minister of the Government of National Unity (GNU) last year through the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum. He was meant to stay in office until December 2021, when the scheduled legislative and presidential elections were due to be held, but were postponed instead.

If the nature of the attack on Dbeibeh is confirmed, reports Reuters, it could exacerbate the political crisis in Libya and the fragile cross-country ceasefire signed in October 2020. Libya has had little peace or stability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Gaddafi, and was split after 2014 between warring camps in east and west, each with its own government.

READ: ‘I will leave no stone unturned’, vows UN Advisor after returning to Libya