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The head of the UN-backed compromise government for war-torn Libya arrived by sea Wednesday in the capital Tripoli to take up his position, a source in the city’s Abu Sita naval base told dpa.
Fayez Serraj arrived at the naval base after – according to local newspaper the Libya Herald – the Mitiga airport outside Tripoli was closed to him on the orders of the Islamist-leaning government, which claims control of the capital.
Under UN-brokered and internationally backed plans to resolve Libya’s civil strife, a Government of National Accord headed by Serraj is to replace both the Tripoli government and its centrist rival based in the eastern city of Tobruk.
The Facebook page of Serraj’s Presidential Council – the nucleus of the proposed unity government – said that he and other members of the council had arrived in the capital.
Serraj is expected to attempt to form a full government in the coming days, after previous attempts failed to gain a vote of support from the Tobruk parliament.
Libya has suffered five years of civil strife since a revolt broke out in February 2011 against Muammar Gaddafi.
Over the last year, the Islamic State extremist group has taken advantage of the chaos to gain control of an area of the country’s central Mediterranean coast, lying between the regions controlled by Tobruk and Tripoli.
