Libya tribal clashes leave 147 dead

Fatma al-Hamroush said that the fighting in Sabha has also left 395 wounded. Around 180 people have been transported to the capital Tripoli for emergency treatment.

The clashes in the oasis region some 400 miles south of Tripoli show the fragile authority of the Libyan government, particularly in the isolated settlements that dot the southern desert.

With only a nascent national army and police force, Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council relies on militias comprised of former rebels to keep the peace, and the country’s vast distances make it difficult to deploy them to trouble spots.

The late dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s 40 years in power left behind a patchwork of local rivalries. The Sabha fighting pits southern Libyan Arab tribes that reportedly had close connections to Gaddafi against the African Tabu tribe, which fought against him.

Residents of the oasis say that the rivalry burst into open conflict last Monday after a Tabu shot a member of the Arab Abu Seif tribe, before a delegation of Tabu elders and armed men going to participate in reconciliation talks was ambushed.