Italy agrees to lift Libya flight ban

Flights between the two countries were stopped in 2014

Libya's Government of National Unity says Italy will soon lift a flight ban. PA

After nearly a decade of suspension due to an EU ban, air travel between Libya and Italy will resume in September, the head of the Tripoli-based, UN-backed government said on Sunday.

"The Italian government has informed us of its decision to lift the air embargo imposed on Libyan civil aviation for 10 years," interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al Dbeibah said on Twitter.

The information could not be verified by AFP from the Italian government.

But the Italian embassy in Tripoli said in a tweet that the head of Italy's Civil Aviation Authority, Pierluigi Di Palma, discussed the resumption of flights with Libyan officials in Tripoli.

Flights between the two countries were halted in 2014 after the EU blacklisted Libyan airlines and banned them from flying over European airspace.

Mr Al Dbeibah said on Sunday that flights between Tripoli and Rome were expected "to resume in September" but he did not specify if Libyan carriers would be removed from the EU blacklist.

Malta is the only other European country to have resumed flights with Libya.

President Sheikh Mohamed receives PM of Libya’s Government of National Unity - in pictures

Oil-rich Libya plunged into years of chaos after a Nato-backed uprising toppled and killed strongman Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.

Since then, the North African country has been divided, with one administration based in Tripoli and the other in the east where it was backed by military strongman Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

Armed groups have exploited the turmoil to fund their activities through fuel smuggling and the illegal trafficking of migrants.

European countries suspended flights to Libya in 2014 after a coalition of militias called Fajr Libya seized Tripoli following weeks of fighting that caused massive damage to the capital's international airport.