Yesterday and the night before have been scary... Two armed groups have clashed near my area. It wasn't close to my neighborhood, but we could hear the gunfire from my home.
I don't know the cause of the clash, I have my theories and could look it up, but it's hard to trust any source right now. Skirmishes like these aren't very rare in Libya. They happened in various cities to the political problems since 2011, but it's one of the few times they got this close and/or this violent.
As a citizen, I thought we'll be mostly safe because both sides never wanted to harm Civilians! But in this clash of 27th of August 2022 it got out of hand. By the time of this writing, it's confirmed that at least 32 innocent people were killed! One of them is a local Actor.
Mustafa Barakah got stuck in the middle of the fighting area. Thinking he could die at any moment. He documented his whereabouts in a video call with his friend before attempting to go home. His body was found in the next day...
His friend is heartbroken right now.
Someone I know is Mustafa's fan. He went to his funeral yesterday. (It was dangerous, considering the shootings were still happening on the other side of the city.
(I kept thinking if he's okay out there at the funeral... That's when the weight of the situation really hit me. Luckily, the clash never reached that place.)
It wasn't rare for armed clashes to happen in Tripoli, but they usually fought at night in places farther away from civilians. We could hear their shootings, but it never felt as dangerous as yesterday to me. It never felt real.
The fact that this time, other countries talked about it on their News channels, makes it even scarier to me. They usually ignore us... Was the clash this time really that bad?
Anyway, at the time of this writing, the battle is over, and it seems that the armed groups are considering solving their "clash" peacefully, (for now.) But I doubt it'll amount to anything considering the pattern we had for 10+ years.
Civilians will be safe next time... Right?
