Libya: Flights between Tripoli, Benghazi to begin

TRIPOLI, Libya

Commercial flights between Tripoli and Benghazi will resume later this month after they were suspended for more than a year, a Libyan official said Friday.

Flights between Benina International Airport in Benghazi and Tripoli's Mitiga International Airport will begin Oct. 23, state-owned Libyan Afriqiyah Airways official Milad al-Hecrasi told Libya Panorama television.

The first flight from Tripoli arrived at Benghazi’s Benina International Airport earlier Friday.

Local media reported that an African Airlines plane arrived at the airport from Tripoli after a hiatus of more than a year.

The airport is located east of Benghazi, the second-largest city in Libya, and was closed in conjunction with an offensive by Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar against Tripoli in 2019.

Libya has been torn by civil war since the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The government was founded in 2015 under a UN-led agreement, but efforts for a long-term political settlement have failed due to a military offensive by forces loyal to Haftar.

The UN recognizes Fayez al-Sarraj's government as the country's legitimate authority as Tripoli has battled Haftar's militias since April 2019 in a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz