Two days of clashes in southeastern Libya between a local armed faction and Sudanese fighters have left more than 30 people dead, a local mayor said on Friday.
The commander of the Libyan Subul Assalam faction, Abdurrahman Hashim,
said the Sudanese fighters were rebels from Sudan's Darfur region who
had moved into the area around the town of Kufra following the uprising
that toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
He
said his group was retaliating for armed robberies and attempted
attacks on Kufra, in Libya's desert south-east which shares a border
with northwestern Sudan.
Kufra Mayor Miftah Bou Khalil told Reuters that Subul Assalam fighters attacked an oasis 150 km north-west of Kufra on Friday, killing 10 Sudanese fighters and capturing four.
He
said at least 20 Sudanese fighters were killed in an attack on a
checkpoint 200 km north of Kufra and further clashes to the south of the
town on Thursday.
Hashim said on Thursday that
his men had destroyed and captured a number of vehicles. At least one of
his men had been killed and six wounded in the fighting, he said.
Libya
has been riven by instability since Gaddafi's fall, with competing
factions and loose alliances of armed groups fighting for political
power and the country's oil wealth.
There are two rival parliaments and governments, one based in Tripoli and the other in the east.
The
conflict has spread to the country's impoverished south, where there
have been frequent outbreaks of fighting, often between the Tebu and
Tuareg tribal groups.
Kufra mayor Bou Khalil said
the Subul Assalam faction included rebels who fought against Gaddafi and
backed Libya's eastern government and armed forces. However, it was not
clear whether the latest clashes were directly linked to Libya's wider
conflict.
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