• Libya: Haftar forces attack on Tripoli, two injured
  • Libya, resignation of UN envoy Ghassan Salamé
  • Libya, national agreement government suspends talks
  • Libya: truce violated, Haftar's forces advance southeast of Misurata, at least 17 dead

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April 28, 2020 General Khalifa Haftar has proclaimed himself head of Libya, in a statement on al-Hadath TV in which he said he "accepted the mandate of the Libyan people to deal with the country". The 76 year old strongman from Cyrenaica has again declared invalid the Skhirat agreement which in 2015 established the creation of a national agreement government based in Tripoli, led by Fayez al-Serraj and recognized by the international community. A strategic move, or dictated by the belief that you no longer have anything to lose. 

A dozen days ago, the general, after a series of military defeats that had allowed the government of Tripoli to regain some cities on the coast towards the border with Tunisia, had returned to attack the capital. In the previous days, it had cut water supplies making the situation even more critical while Libya is also fighting against the spread of the coronavirus, with all the concerns related to the strong presence of migrants in camps with poor hygiene conditions.

Just last Saturday, Italy, France and Germany with the European Union had appealed to Haftar and al-Serraj for a humanitarian truce during Ramadan. Until now Haftar had claimed his legitimacy to fight by the citizens of Cyrenaica, in the east of the country, but now he has hinted that he can also count on the support of the rest of the country, although he has not specified any details regarding this support. . His forces, he said, will put in place "the conditions necessary to build the permanent institutions of a civil state". But both the US embassy in the country and a United Nations representative have rejected his unilateral declaration, again calling on Haftar to deal with al-Serraj since a ceasefire for Ramadan.

According to UN observers, the move could even be the desperate and final act of those who now consider themselves close to defeat. Already in 2017 the general had declared the Skhirat agreement expired, and last week he had asked the Libyans to choose an institution to govern the country since the government established by that agreement is no longer valid. After the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011, the country has always been divided and at the mercy of the territorial clans, which then respectively recognized themselves in the East, in Cyrenaica, under the guidance of General Haftar, and in the west, in Tripolitania, in that of the Serraj government.