Libyan state minister survives assassination attempt in Tripoli, says government

A Libyan state minister survived an assassination attempt when gunmen opened fire on his car in the capital Tripoli on Wednesday, the government has said.

Reuters has reported that the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) strongly condemned the attack in which it said an unknown group had shot directly at the vehicle of the state minister for cabinet affairs Adel Juma as it travelled on a highway.

The statement, posted on an official platform, said that Juma’s health condition was stable, and that the security authorities had “launched investigations to uncover the circumstances of the incident and track down the perpetrators.”

The GNU under Prime Minister Abdelhamid Al-Dbeibeh was installed through a UN-backed process in 2021.

Oil-rich Libya has been in political turmoil and seen several outbreaks of conflict since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

READ: UN Migration Agency voices alarm over mass graves found in Libya