Submit or disband, Libya tells militias

The assault on the US mission in Benghazi, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, has sparked an angry backlash among many Libyans against the myriad armed factions that continue to run rampant across the nation nearly a year after the end of the country’s civil war.

On Friday, Benghazi residents staged a mass demonstration against the militias, and stormed the compounds of several armed groups in the city in an unprecedented protest to demand they dissolve.

On Saturday night President Mohammed el-Megaref said the militias, which the weak central government has relied upon for providing security in neighbourhoods and at state facilities since the removal of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, must fall under the authority of the national government or be disbanded.

He said a joint operations room in Benghazi will co-ordinate between the various authorised armed brigades and the army. Armed groups operating outside the “legitimacy of the state” 
will be disbanded, and the military and police will take control over those militias’ barracks, he said.

In a statement published by the official LANA news agency, 
the military asked all armed groups using the army’s camps and outposts and barracks in Tripoli and other cities to hand them over.

It warned that it will resort to force if the groups refuse.

The militias arose as people took up arms to fight Gaddafi’s regime. They bristle with heavy weapons, pay little attention to national authorities and are accused by some of acting like gangs, carrying out killings.