The death toll of the clashes in the Libyan capital Tripoli has increased to 23, the country's Health Ministry said Saturday, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
The ministry requested that attacks on medical facilities should be avoided, saying a number of hospitals and medical centers in the city have been damaged. It confirmed that medical teams could not access certain areas to help civilians who made distress calls due to the clashes.
The violent clashes, which have also injured 140 so far, erupted late on Friday in different areas of central Tripoli between armed groups affiliated with two rival governments.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is following with deep concern reports of the violent clashes, said his spokesman in a statement on Saturday.
The secretary-general calls for an immediate cessation of violence in Tripoli. He urges the Libyan parties to engage in a genuine dialogue to address the ongoing political impasse and not to use force to resolve their differences, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman, said in the statement.
The United Nations remains ready to provide good offices and mediation to help Libyan actors chart a way out of the political deadlock, which is increasingly threatening Libya's hard-won stability, said the statement.
Libya is currently at a political impasse. The eastern-based House of Representatives, the parliament, withdrew confidence from Abdul-Hamed Dbeibah's Government of National Unity in Tripoli and voted in March to install a new government led by Fathi Bashagha.
The country has suffered political instability and chaos since Muammar Gaddafi's fall in 2011.