Tens of protesters took to the streets Friday in Sabha and blamed Khalifa Haftar for the deterioration of living conditions in the city as well as in the southern region as a whole.

The protesters said in a statement that since Haftar had been in charge of fuel supplies in the south; that is since his forces took control of the region in January 2019, black market activities soared and plunged ordinary people into more miserable living conditions.

They also said Haftar’s forces were responsible for the shutdown of Sabha Airport, which is the only way out an in for southerners, saying the security of the airport was the job of Haftar’s so-called General Command.

Sabha has been under the control of Haftar’s forces as well as foreign mercenaries as the residents continue to express frustration at the terrible living conditions and the complete isolation due to the closure of the airport.

Haftar's forces even prevented an Afriqiyah Airways' plane with 100 civilians on board from landing at Sabha Airport on September 30 - demanding all flights coming from Tripoli to land in Benghazi's Benina Airport first for inspection, which saw the airliner cancel all flights to Sabha from Mitiga Airport in Tripoli.