The killing of Abdel Ghani al-Kikli, a notorious militia commander long accused of war crimes and human rights abuses, has triggered violent clashes across the Libyan capital, leaving at least six people dead and prompting warnings from international organizations.
Al-Kikli, widely known as Gheniwa, led the Stability Support Apparatus (SSA), one of Tripoli’s most powerful armed groups, headquartered in the densely populated Abu Salim neighborhood. According to a security source speaking to Al Wasat television, he was shot and killed late Monday night at the headquarters of the 444th Combat Brigade of the Libyan army.
In the hours following his death, armed confrontations broke out between rival militias. Gunfire echoed across central Tripoli and surrounding areas, with eyewitnesses reporting tracer fire lighting up the night sky. Libya’s Emergency Medicine and Support Centre confirmed the recovery of six bodies from around Abu Salim, one of the flashpoints of the violence.
Residents, caught in the chaos, described scenes of panic and confusion. “I heard heavy gunfire and I saw red lights in the sky,” a local man told Reuters. Others reported intense shooting in Abu Salim and Salah Eddin districts. The GNU’s interior ministry urged citizens to stay indoors for their safety, prompting a frenzy of drivers speeding and honking across the city in response.
Al-Kikli was a central figure in Libya’s fragile balance of power. His SSA operated under the Presidential Council established in 2021, following the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) through a UN-backed process. In recent months, Kikli had been embroiled in escalating disputes with rival militias, particularly those linked to the coastal city of Misrata.
Both Amnesty International and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) had long condemned Kikli’s militia as one of the main perpetrators of atrocities in Libya’s notorious detention centres. A 2022 ECCHR complaint to the International Criminal Court named him as a potential co-perpetrator of crimes against humanity, citing widespread reports of torture, extrajudicial killings, and systemic abuse of migrants and refugees.
In a 2022 statement, Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said: “For over a decade, militias under al-Kikli’s command terrorised people in Abu Salim through enforced disappearances, torture, unlawful killings and other crimes under international law. He should be investigated and, if there is enough admissible evidence, prosecuted in a fair trial.”
Despite his criminal record, al-Kikli maintained significant political connections. As recently as March, he was photographed visiting a GNU minister receiving treatment in Rome following a failed assassination attempt.
Libya remains a critical transit point for Europe-bound migrants
Many of whom are detained indefinitely in inhumane conditions. Human rights groups have consistently reported that asylum seekers, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa, face extortion, torture, and exploitation by both smugglers and militias.
The North African nation, a major oil producer, has struggled with instability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted Muammar Gaddafi. Since the country’s split in 2014 between rival eastern and western governments, major efforts at reconciliation have stalled. Though a 2020 ceasefire halted large-scale combat, periodic flare-ups like the current violence in Tripoli continue to derail peace efforts.
In response to the unrest, the United Nations Mission in Libya has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. “Attacks on civilians and civilian objects may amount to war crimes,” the mission warned in a statement, urging all parties to respect international humanitarian law.
As the dust settles over Tripoli, the death of Gheniwa may mark a turning point in Libya’s volatile power dynamics but whether it leads to further chaos or a reckoning with years of militia impunity remains to be seen.
