The chief of Libya’s Tabu Tribe, who earlier this week warned of the prospect of a war of secession in southern Libya, is today calling for an international intervention to halt the “ethnic cleansing” of his tribe by other factions.
“We demand that the United Nations and European Union intervene to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Tabu,” said Chief Mansour. He says ethnic Arabs in southern Libya have been targeting Tabu dominated settlements.
Most of the fighting recently has centered around the major city of Sabha, where peace talks turned into a weeklong fight when a Tabu tribesman killed a Sabha militia member in a dispute over a car on the way to the talks, starting the fighting all over again.
Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) has sent thousands of troops to Sabha to try to calm the fighting, and while they claimed to have brokered a ceasefire today, residents say that the fighting hasn’t stopped.
