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Cease-Fire in Libya Collapses Despite International Efforts

EntertainmentCease-Fire in Libya Collapses Despite International Efforts

A cease-fire in the Libyan civil war has collapsed and foreign shipments to the combatants have resumed, shredding the work of a conference of world leaders who convened in Berlin just eight days ago.

“Battles are raging on all front lines,” Ahmed Mismari, a spokesman for the military forces based in eastern Libya, told reporters over the weekend, according to Reuters.

The United Nations had already warned on Friday of “continued blatant violations of the arms embargo” by unnamed foreign powers who had pledged just days earlier to stop supplying weapons to Libyan clients.

In a statement, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya said, “Over the last 10 days, numerous cargo and other flights have been observed landing at Libyan airports in the western and eastern parts of the country providing the parties with advanced weapons, armored vehicles, advisers and fighters.”

“The mission condemns these ongoing violations, which risk plunging the country into a renewed and intensified round of fighting,” it added.

The end of the cease-fire and the resumption of weapons shipments are grave blows to the United Nations’ attempts to resolve the conflict. But they are also setbacks for rival peace efforts by the leaders of Russia and Turkey, important backers of the two warring sides in the Libya fight. The two leaders had attempted to upstage the United Nations by privately negotiating a truce, but they have failed to impose it on their Libyan clients.

The leaders of both sides of the Libyan fight have said that they continue to uphold the cease-fire. But both have also said that they were retaliating against rivals’ attacks.

In reality, sporadic fighting around the outskirts of Tripoli had continued throughout the cease-fire. By the end of the weekend, however, the clashes had escalated.

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