A Libyan child was killed and two others were injured when a shell fell on their house on Friday evening in Sebha, South of the country.
The mortar was reportedly shot in the air by cadets celebrating their graduation from the military college.
In a statement, the Head of Sebha Medical Centre said that the victim was a 10 year old boy, who died of severe wounds.
He noted that “the injured are being treated at the centre, and if their condition does not stabilise, it means that there is no alternative but to transfer them to the capital, Tripoli, given the deteriorating medical services in southern Libya.”
Notably, at least 14 people were killed and dozens injured earlier this month when a fuel truck exploded in southwestern Libya.
The precise causes of the blast were not clear.
Libya has been mired in conflict for long stretches since Moammar Gaddafi was deposed and killed in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011. Plagued by divisions between competing institutions in the East and West, Libya remains split between rival forces, with two opposing executives in place since February.
The southern Libyan border areas remain a region of endemic instability wracked by communal conflict and rampant smuggling. The region has long existed on the periphery of Libya’s politics and international concerns—but that must change. Increasingly, the vacuum of governance in the South has drawn in political actors from northern Libya and outside states. Extremists seeking refuge in the south and migrants being smuggled through the region directly impact the security of Libya, neighbouring states like Tunisia, and Europe.
The situation in southern Libya has drawn fighters from across the region, giving smugglers greater access to the ungoverned border between Niger and Libya. This has helped fuel the unprecedented flow of migrants to Europe in 2021.