(SomaliNet) A pro-government Libyan newspaper said in a rare report of a security breach in the country that gunbattles broke out between two tribes in southeastern Libya last week and six people were killed. Libyan government officials have made no comment on the incident in the remote oasis town of Kufrah, the subject of varying accounts in some Arab newspapers in recent days. Libyan newspaper al Watan said in its online edition monitored from Rabat: "Skirmishes between youths from al Toubou and Zawia tribes evolved into bigger battles in which several cars and houses were burned."
The al Watan article, dated November 7 and not subsequently updated, added that five young members of the Zawia tribe were killed and a young man from the Toubou tribe was shot dead.
Government security forces in Kufrah about 1,400 km (875 miles) southeast of Tripoli only intervened when authorities rushed reinforcements from the Libyan capital to end what al Watan called the "battles and confrontations".
Al Watan said fighters from both sides used illegally owned weapons but gave no further details.
Toubous, dark-skinned non-Arab Libyans, are estimated to account for a fifth of the oil-producing nation's more than 5 million people. Toubou rights activists accuse the Tripoli government of marginalising the population, including reportedly depriving many of identity papers and education. The Libyan government denies the accusations.