Clashes in Libya as Toubou leader threatens secession

The NTC has failed to check the spread of Libyan militias At least 70 people have been reported killed in fighting between militias around the Libyan town of Sabha. Former rebels and ethnic Toubou gunmen began clashing after the killing of a militiaman on Sunday.
Sabha was relatively calm on Wednesday, after Libyan army commandos took control over the town located 750km to the south of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
However, reports of fresh fighting emerged later in the day.
The town's population are reportedly waiting for security re-inforcements and medical supplies from the neighbouring southern cities.
Hundreds of government troops have been sent to the region and mediation efforts are underway, according to government spokesperson Nasser al-Manaa.
He said more than 70 people had been killed and more than 150 wounded since Monday.
Abdelmajid Seif al-Nasser, a local official who said he had quit his post on the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) in protest at the violence, told AFP news agency: "There are still clashes [in Sabha] but not as intense.
"The national army and a committee of elders have entered the town in a bid to secure a truce."
The town witnessed fierce tribal clashes between the African Toubou Tribe and the Arab tribes of the town in the past week. Officials blamed the violence on isolated crimes that snowballed into tribal clashes, while the Toubou tribe's leader, Abdel Majid Mansour, described them as an "ethnic war" between the National Transitional Council (NTC) forces and Arab tribes against the African tribes of southern Libya.
Mansour said earlier this week that 40 members of his tribe had been killed, and accused Libyan authorities of using warplanes and tanks against his tribe. Mansur denounced what he said was a plan of "ethnic cleansing" against his people, and raised the threat of a separatist bid.
"We announce the reactivation of the Toubou Front for the Salvation of Libya (TFSL), an opposition group active under the former regime, to protect the Toubou people from ethnic cleansing," Mansour said.
"If necessary, we will demand international intervention and work towards the creation of a state, as in South Sudan," he said.
Meanwhile, the representative of Tuareg tribes in Benghazi city, Ahmed al-Targi, insisted his tribes were not involved in theclashes, saing they tried instead to establish a cease-fire between the conflicting groups, but it had quickly collapsed. Libyan army aircraft reportedly bombed Tuareg camps in the south although they were not involved in the violence.
On the other hand, the national security director of Sabha, Colonel Mohammed Abu Saif, said the clashes "did not have a tribal background as militant groups had broken into the headquarters of the town's military council and stole money that was supposed to pay the former rebels' wages".
A Military council spokesperson, Ahmed Daw Bougrassa, said: "The Toubou tribes supported by some Africans belonging to neighbouring countries entered Sabha from the town of Murzeg. Rebels have managed to capture a number of them. Lax security in Libya and the weakness of the NTC and the government have enabled the Toubou to pursue their own agenda of declaring a separate state in the south of Libya."
"There are some fronts that support them with money and weapons from the followers of the former regime , so the now possess heavy artillery and armed SUVs," he added.
The NTC is facing stern tests of its authority from local militias in different parts of the country.
Some African tribes in southern Libya, such as the Toubou, feel they are not treated as equals by Arabs from the coastal cities of the north who tend to dominate the country's government and security forces.
Other Libyans accuse the Toubou of involvement in the smuggling of illegal migrants trying to get to Europe through via Libyan ports.