Six killed by Tripolis after you killed the militia guide | Libya

The murder of the head of one of the most powerful militias of Libya who was accused of having abused asylum seekers and exposed to crimes against humanity triggered armed clashes in Tripoli, which led to at least six deaths.

Abdel Ghani Al-Kikli, better known as Gheniwa, the commander of the Support Force Apparatus SSA, one of the mighty armed groups of Tripolis, which was killed in the densely populated neighborhood of Abu Salim, on Monday evening in the headquarters of the 444th struggle.

Kikli, one of the most influential militia leaders in the capital, was recently involved in disputes with competing armed groups, including political groups associated with the city of Misrata. His SSA is under the Presidential Council, which in 2021 came to power with the government of National Unity (GNU) of Abdul Hamid Dbeibah through an unsupported process.

Armed clashes broke out overnight and after reports on Kikli's death, the shots resoned in the city center and in other parts of Tripolis.

Libya's emergency and support center said: “Six bodies were called up by the sites of clashes around Abu Salim.

The Interior Ministry of the GNU asked the citizens to stay at home “for their own security”. After calling the ministry, the drivers began to accelerate and honk in many streets of the Tripolis.

A man said to Reuters: “I heard heavy shots and saw red lights in the sky.” . Other residents reported shots that were reverberating in their neighborhoods of Abu Salim and Salah Eddin.

The UN mission in Libya asked all parties to “fight immediately and restore the calm” and reminded them of their obligation to protect civilians. “Attacks on civilians and civilian objects can mean war crimes,” it said.

Amnesty International and the European Center for Constitution and Human Rights (ECCCHR) have described Kiklis Group as one of the most important perpetrators of violence in Libya's detention centers. According to an expert report by the UN Security Council in December 2024, Kikli was a central number in the balance of power in Libya and played a key role in militia financing through corrupt practices.

As a leader of the SSA, he was accused due to extrajudicial murders, torture and serious human rights violations. His name appears in an 189-page complaint, which was submitted by the ECCHR at the International Criminal Court in 2022 and listed it among the potential co-perpetrators of crimes against humanity in connection with the systematic abuse of migrants and refugees.

Diana Eltahawy, the deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, said in a report published in 2022: “It cannot be a surprise that Al-Kiklis Miliz's militia of al-Kikli is again involved in terrible crimes. Torture, illegal murders and other crimes under international law.

In March, Kikli showed in Rome in the European Hospital, which visited a GNU Minister of Gnu Adel Juma, who was treated there after the survival of an attack in Tripoli on February 12.

Libya is an important transit point for asylum seekers in Europe. Human rights organizations have documented for years, such as migrants who are caught in the country, militias and smugglers. Tens of thousands of people from Africa south of the Sahara are held indefinitely in overcrowded refugee detection centers in which they are abused and tortured.

The country, a large oil producer in the Mediterranean, has had little stability since NATO supported by NATO. Libya split up between warfare eastern and western factions in 2014. Big fights took a break in 2020, but the efforts to end the political crisis have failed, with the large factions occasionally in armed clashes and competing for the essential economic resources of Libya.

Reuters contributed to this report