Libya’s eastern-based forces will cease fire for Ramadan, their spokesman said on Wednesday, after they suffered setbacks during weeks of intense fighting against the internationally recognized government.
Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed Mismari said in a television broadcast that the ceasefire came at the request of the international community and “friendly countries”.
Both the LNA and the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) have already said twice this year that they would stop fighting, but there was a sharp escalation in warfare last month.
The LNA, which is supported by the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Egypt, has for weeks been shelling the capital in a campaign of bombardment that has drawn repeated rebukes from the United Nations.
Hospitals in parts of Tripoli held by the GNA have repeatedly been hit by shelling in recent weeks, despite the threat to Libya posed by the coronavirus.
There was no immediate GNA response to the LNA’s declaration of a ceasefire, but Mismari said the eastern-based forces would reserve the right to respond to attacks. Ramadan, Islam’s holy fasting month, began last week.
It comes at a moment of political uncertainty in the eastern camp, with Haftar declaring on Monday that the army would take power and ripping up a 2015 political agreement that has been the basis for all international peacemaking efforts.
Egypt and Russia, two of the LNA’s main supporters, have declined either to endorse or reject the move, with Haftar having yet to spell out how the new government would operate or what relation it would have to the eastern-based parliament.
