Anti-government protests in Tripoli turn deadly

A police officer was killed on May 17 during an attempted assault on the headquarters of Libya’s UN-recognised Government of National Unity in Tripoli. The government claimed the officer was shot while defending Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah’s office from a group “mixed with protesters” who allegedly tried to set the building ablaze with Molotov cocktails.

The incident followed mass protests in the capital demanding Dbeibah’s resignation. The UN mission in Libya had earlier affirmed citizens’ right to peaceful assembly and cautioned against further violence.

Unverified footage showed gunfire near the government compound, while reports surfaced of six ministers resigning—two of whom appeared in videos confirming their departure.

The unrest comes amid renewed volatility in Tripoli after recent clashes between armed groups. Libya remains fractured between Dbeibah’s western-based administration and a rival eastern government backed by strongman Khalifa Haftar, more than a decade after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.