World Tour: Libyans call for prime minister to resign

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Nigeria, Onize Oduah.

SOUND: [Protesters chanting]

ONIZE ODUAH: Libya rally — Today’s World Tour begins in the North African nation of Libya, where protesters are demanding that the prime minister step down.

Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah assumed office after a United Nations-backed transition plan in 2021.

But he has remained in office after planned elections failed over disagreements between rival political factions.

Calls for his resignation increased after clashes between two rival armed groups in the capital city of Tripoli turned deadly earlier this month.

Abdelraouf Zahloul is a Tripoli resident.

ZAHLOUL: (Speaking in Arabic) We do not want successive transitional periods. We are tired of transitional periods. We want to go to elections. We want a civil state. We want to be like other countries.

He says that the protesters no longer want any transitional periods, but want elections that will lead to a proper civil government.

Libya has faced political unrest since the NATO-backed ouster … of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Chile Indigenous settlement — Over in South America, Chilean President Gabriel Boric has announced his proposals to end a long-running conflict between the government and an indigenous group called the Mapuche.

The Chilean government has long clashed with the Mapuche over issues like land ownership and discrimination. Some Mapuche activists have attacked construction and logging projects to push for an autonomous state.

A presidential commission set up two years ago consulted with more than 5,000 people across various regions hoping to resolve the conflict.

Boric said the findings propose a new method for restituting indigenous lands, constitutional recognition of indigenous people, and setting up an indigenous affairs unit within the state.

BORIC: (Speaking in Spanish) Following the commission's recommendations, we will strengthen the support program for victims of rural violence to offer sufficient, thorough and continued support, including psychosocial care, and we will also update the victim registry.

He says that his government will also offer more support to victims of rural violence.

But some indigenous activists have questioned whether the government will follow through with such widespread reforms.

SOUND: [Georgian Independence Day ceremony]

Georgia Independence — Over in Europe, the country of Georgia celebrated its independence on Monday with a military parade and an oath ceremony.

Government officials and members of the ruling Georgian Dream party attended the ceremony, but the opposition boycotted it.

Georgia has faced widespread protests since a parliamentary vote in October that brought victory to the Georgian Dream party.

But opposition protesters called the results illegitimate over allegations of Russian involvement and vote rigging.

Elene Gotsiridze is a Tbilisi resident who joined the Independence Day protests on Monday.

GOTSIRIDZE: Today we celebrate and also we have some kind of feeling of protest that we are, we are losing our independence because of the foreign actors, neighbors, large big neighbors who want to abandon our freedom, and we have a double feeling.

She says it’s a celebration but also a protest against foreign actors who want Georgians to abandon their freedom.

India monsoon — We wrap up in India, where the annual summer monsoon rains have arrived earlier than usual in parts of the country.

Heavy rainfall drenched the financial hub of Mumbai on Monday after a similar downpour over the weekend in southern Kerala state.

The rainfall usually begins in June and runs until September.

It already brought flooding to some streets in New Delhi.

Residents have blamed the poor drainage system.

Abhishek Tiwari is a New Delhi resident.

TIWARI: (Speaking in Hindi) The priority should be cleanliness. If the tunnels are not cleaned, garbage will keep accumulating like this, which will in turn cause waterlogging irrespective of what the government does.

He called for regular cleaning of tunnels to avoid garbage from accumulating.

The annual monsoons bring landslides and flooding, but also provide much of the downpour that farmers need for their crops.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Oduah in Abuja, Nigeria.

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