CAIRO (AP) — A self-declared prime minister in Libya says his forces have seized at least three ministries in the capital and is declaring a return of his government after what he described as a yearlong failure of the current U.N.-backed premier.

Khalifa Ghwell told The Associated Press over the phone from Tripoli on Thursday that his forces control the ministries of defense, labor and the "martyrs and the wounded."

He said conditions have gone "from bad to worse" in the year since Prime Minister Fayez Serraj became head of a U.N.-backed government. Serraj is currently visiting Egypt.

Ghwell's so-called National Salvation government was formed by the outgoing parliament after a disputed 2014 transfer of power. The new parliament sits in eastern Libya, and does not recognize the leadership of Ghwell or Serraj.