SUMMARY
In mid-September 2017, fierce fighting between local militias erupted in the coastal town Sabratha. At the time, Sabratha was a key hub for human traffickers smuggling migrants across the Mediterranean Sea. The conflict – which pitted the Operations Room Combating Daesh and Shuhada al-Wadi militias against Anas al-Dabbashi Brigade and Brigade 48 – was motivated by local factors, particularly access to the highly lucrative human trafficking activities. Reflecting western Libya’s at the time chaotic security situation, all militias involved in the 2017 Sabratha conflict were nominally aligned to the Government of Libya. However, as was the case in many Libyan towns, the government did not have any direct control over any of the Sabratha militias, which operated independently from any centralized command structure.
Tensions began to escalate in Sabratha after Anas al-Dabbashi Brigade and Brigade 48 – two militias with very close ties of the powerful al-Dabbashi family – attempted to halt the departure of all migrant boats from Sabratha. Allegedly, Italy had paid off the two brigades to close down the trafficking, and the Libyan government had helped in facilitating the deal. This offset the local balance of power in Sabratha, and aggrieved other militias profiting from human trafficking. Violence erupted as militiamen from the Anas al-Dabbashi Brigade and Brigade 48 clashed with traffickers offshore, which then prompted a retaliation attack by the Shuhada al-Wadi against the two brigades the following day. As the fighting escalated, the Shuhada al-Wadi received support from their allies in the Operations Room Combating Daesh militia. The street battles fought in Sabratha were fierce, leading to the deaths of more than 40 people and widespread destruction of the town itself.
On 6 October, the Operations Room Combating Daesh and the Shuhada al-Wadi militia declared that they had taken full control over Sabratha; their opponents in the Anas al-Dabbashi Brigade confirmed that its forces and those of its allies in Brigade 48 had been expelled from the town.
The non-state conflict between Anas al-Dabbashi Brigade, Brigade 48 and Operations Room Combating Daesh, Shuhada al-Wadi militia is first included in UCDP data in 2017. In late September of that year, clashes between the groups had resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
