April 12, 2019 - 12:46 AMT
EU evacuates staff from Libya

The EU also evacuated staff of its 20-member mission in Tripoli, Libya, Asharq AL-awsat reports.

The staff and diplomats had arrived in Tunisia.

The clashes between the forces of Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) and Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) intensified in Tripoli on Thursday with the death toll in the fighting reaching 56.

The clashes in the capital’s suburbs forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

The Islamist militias in Tripoli, meanwhile, prepared to hold a demonstration on Friday, April 12 in the hope to rally popular support.

On the diplomatic front, Sarraj addressed a message to current Security Council president Germany's UN ambassador, Christoph Heusgen, to criticize the body’s failure to issue a resolution to condemn the LNA’s operation against Tripoli.

The Council and European Union appeared divided over the operation

Sarraj said that EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini had informed him during a telephone call Wednesday that Europe was united in demanding an end to the LNA military advance.

An EU statement expressed its grave concern over the military escalation in the capital, saying there can be no military solution to the Libyan crisis.