Dozens of protesters have rallied in Benghazi over deteriorating living conditions and power cuts, in a rare show of public dissent in Libya’s second-biggest city.

Polling stations in Ghat and its environs closed at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, after voters cast their ballots in the voting centers set up for the local government elections, said the Central Committee for Municipal Council Elections (CCMCE), noting that despite the coronavirus pandemic the voter turnout reached 54%.

Over 90% of the mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group which supported Libyan renegade commander Khalifa Haftar have left the town of Bani Walid in a big convoy, its mayor said Tuesday. 

Misurata Emergency Room said in a statement Sunday that it found it strange that the Presidential Council was neglecting the frontlines and giving no support for the forces on the frontlines.

The parallel government controlling eastern Libya will impose a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., excluding security and emergency personnel, to stop any spread of the coronavirus, its interior ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Council of Elders and Dignitaries of Misurata denies issuing a statement calling the city’s sons to withdraw from the fighting fronts in Tripoli and Sirte.

The political and military leaders of the Amazigh town of Yefren have declared the state of full mobilization to repel Haftar’s attack on Tripoli, vowing to place all the town’s capabilities at the disposal of the Government of National Accord (GNA).

Municipalities of Greater Tripoli, members of the House of Representatives and the High Council of State, and elders and dignitaries of the capital have welcomed the state of full mobilization declared by most cities in western Libya to end Haftar’s aggression.

The Mayor of the Municipality of Sirte, Mukhtar Al-Madani condemned on Sunday the airstrikes conducted by Haftar’s forces on several areas in the city, including Al-Qardabiya Project and the Man-Made River Project.

The member of Murzuq municipality Mohammed Omar said a warplane for Khalifa Haftar’s forces struck Saturday afternoon Murzuq in southern Libya twice.