Turkey was preparing on Thursday to evacuate its nationals living in the Libyan capital of Tripoli after several days of fatal clashes between armed groups.
“For our citizens who want to leave Tripoli, Turkish Airlines is looking into the possibility of a flight from Misrata to İstanbul,” the Turkish Embassy said in a post on Facebook, referring to a major port city 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of the capital.
The embassy said it was working “to provide bus transport from Tripoli to Misrata.”
It said priority would be given to women, children and the elderly who wanted to leave, along with Turkish citizens temporarily in the country.
Since the violence flared late on Monday, air traffic at Tripoli airport has come to an almost total standstill due to fighting between loyalist forces and powerful armed groups that the government is trying to dismantle.
Turkey, which backs the United Nations-recognized government in Tripoli led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, on Wednesday called for a truce “without delay,” saying it was “closely monitoring the escalating situation” in and around the capital.
Libya has struggled to recover from years of unrest since the NATO-backed 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime leader Muammer Gaddafi.
The country remains split between Dbeibah’s government in the west and a rival authority backed by strongman Khalifa Haftar in the east.
Between April 2019 and June 2020, Haftar engaged in an offensive to seize Tripoli with the support of foreign powers including Russia and Egypt.
The advance was halted by the Tripoli government.
Despite a period of relative calm in Libya in recent years, clashes have periodically broken out between armed groups vying for territory and influence, notably in Tripoli and western Libya.
The UN mission in Libya said it was “deeply alarmed by escalating violence in densely populated neighborhoods” of the capital.
© Agence France-Presse