Protests erupt in Libya’s Tripoli as anger grows over power cuts

Protesters shut roads and the foreign ministry in Tripoli as a civil disobedience campaign over power cuts spreads to more areas.

Protesters in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, have shut down roads and public buildings across the city as a civil disobedience campaign, launched over prolonged power cuts and high electricity rates, spread to more districts.

Crowds blocked the coastal road in Janzour, west of Tripoli, on Sunday, and gathered outside the West Tripoli power station in protest at the hours-long outages.

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Videos posted online, verified by Al Jazeera, show protesters burning tyres into the early hours of Monday and closing down major roads elsewhere in the capital. The footage also shows protesters unloading a truck loaded with dirt in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Sater Turba area in Tripoli in a bid to shut it down.

The mostly young protesters also shut the offices of state telecoms operator Libyana in the district of Souq Al-Jumaa, according to the Libya Review news outlet, carrying banners criticising Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah.

The campaign was launched by the Souq Al-Jumaa Movement, which has opposed the Government of National Unity since May 2025. It said in a statement on Sunday that its aim was to “completely paralyse the government” rather than disrupt ordinary life.

It called for accountability over alleged corruption and for the dissolution of Libya’s existing political institutions, including the government, the House of Representatives, the State Council and the Presidential Council.

The unrest also spread to the town of Tajoura, east of Tripoli, where a video showed three protesters putting up a sign on the municipal office, declaring it closed.

The Tajoura Families and Youth Movement said it would begin a full boycott of state institutions on Monday, rejecting both the unity government and the House of Representatives.

It said in a statement that the call was in protest against the deterioration of services, citing the decline in electricity, water, education and health services, alongside continuing fuel and liquidity crises and medicine shortages, while “officials are preoccupied with political conflicts”.

There was no immediate comment from the Government of National Unity.

Blackouts in Tripoli and other areas have reached up to 10 hours a day, prompting the state-run General Electricity Company to reinstate load-shedding measures after two years of relative network stability.

The outages have compounded existing public frustration over inflation, currency instability, fuel and liquidity shortages, and Libya’s protracted political deadlock.

Separately, Massad Boulos, the White House adviser for African affairs, said he had held a “productive call” with Dbeibah on Sunday to discuss steps towards Libyan unification, including security cooperation between the country’s eastern and western factions.

“We also reviewed opportunities to further coordination and interoperability between Libyan forces and Africom,” Boulos said on X, adding that Washington remained committed to supporting Libya’s unification “in order to achieve durable peace, stability and prosperity”.