Libya: 250,000 people flee fighting as Islamist group takes over

Written by Super User 18 Sep 2014

Fighting between rival groups in Libya's main cities has displaced 100,000 people, and caused another 150,000 to flee the country, a United Nations report said today. Numerous human rights abuses, including indiscriminate killing and abductions, took place between May and August, the report issued by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said. Yesterday Islamist-allied group Fajr Libya, or Libyan Dawn, appointed a new government in Tripoli, rivalling the existing government, which was only elected in June. Libyan Dawn took control of the capital on August 24 following intense fighting between rival groups since July 13. They re-convened an assembly of the National General Congress, the interim government that controlled Libya after the toppling of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The elected parliament has fled to Tobruk in the east to escape the fighting.

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