Libya's GNA Continues Fighting LNA Forces Despite Haftar Declaring Ceasefire

The GNA says it does not trust Haftar's claims of a ceasefire.

"We will continue conducting legitimate self-defence, continue striking at hotbeds of threat wherever they are, and we will finish off criminal groups that disregard the lives of Libyans across the entire country", the GNA said in a statement, adding that a real ceasefire and an armistice can only be reached via the work of 5+5 commission under international guarantees and control.

After the ouster and assassination of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the country was plunged into a brutal civil war. Today, Libya is divided between two centres of power — an elected parliament in the country's east, supported by the Libyan National Army and the UN-backed Government of National Accord in the west, headed by Fayez Sarraj.

The situation in Libya escalated on 13 April when Tripoli-based GNA said that it had launched a rapid offensive west of the country's capital and taken control over the cities of Sabratah and Surman. A day later, an official from the GNA's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Tripoli-based forces had captured the coastal area from the city of Misrata, located to the east of the capital, to the city of Zuwara close to the Tunisian border. On 21 April, Chairman of Libya's High Council of State in Tripoli, Khalid al-Mishri, expressed hope that the LNA would be defeated during the Ramadan.