NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES
- Six people were mildly injured after fire broke out at the Libyan International Hospital in Benghazi. They were sent to Benghazi Medical Center for treatment, according to multiple press reports. Authorities have responded the a fire, and patients and staff were evacuated. The cause of the fire is unclear.
- The Libyan Interior Ministry has stepped up security patrols along the porous border with Tunisia in an attempt to curtail the flow of illegal migrants, according to a government statement released Monday, August 7. The heightened police presence comes amid reports of ill-treatment of migrants by Tunisian security forces. Video footage recently emerged showing Tunisian police expelling migrants stranded in border areas by pushing them en masse toward Libya.
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At least four migrants died and 51 were missing after a migrant ship sank off Tunisia’s Kerkennah island, a judicial official told Reuters on Sunday, adding that all the migrants onboard were from sub-Saharan Africa.
NATIONAL POLITICS AND SOCIAL ISSUES
- UN envoy to Libya Abdoulaye Bathily said he met with the new President of the High Council of State (HCS), Mohamed Takala, and the members of the Presidency of the Council in Tripoli, where he congratulated them on the occasion of their election and urged them to continue working for ending the political impasse.
- Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the top commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), held a meeting with security chiefs to mark the 83rd anniversary of the founding of Libya’s military. The meeting underscored Haftar’s ongoing efforts to consolidate his leadership over the country’s fragmented armed forces. Haftar praised the readiness and discipline of the security units under his command while urging the commanders to boost their capabilities moving forward.
- UN Envoy to Libya Abdoulaye Bathily said Tuesday Libya has the potential to become a major player in Africa and the Mediterranean basin if Libyans agreed to heal the wounds of the past through comprehensive national reconciliation & a broad political agreement that would unite the country and put it on the path to recovery. Bathily’s comments came during his visit to the city of Zawiya west of Tripoli and meeting with representatives of the local community from HoR, HCS, the municipal council, elders, members of the academia, civil society, women and youth as well as representatives of security actors.
- José Antonio Sabadell, the European Union’s Ambassador to Libya, told Mussa Al-Koni, deputy chairman of Libya’s Presidential Council, that the EU Mission will return to work in Tripoli “within the coming period”, according to a statement by the Libyan council.
- The outgoing Libyan Prime Minister Abdel Hamid Dbeibeh discussed with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, the elections and the latest political developments in Libya, according to Dbeibeh’s media. During the meeting, Bathily gave Dbeibeh a briefing on his recent tour and meetings with the Libyan parties, for direct access to the elections and ending the transitional stages, said Hakomitna media platform of Dbeibeh’s government.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
- Yousef al-Agouri, head of the Libyan House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, met with a delegation of Indian diplomats led by Pradeep Rajpurohit, Director of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ Middle East and Asia division, and Neelkamal Darshana Gangte, Indian Ambassador to Libya. According to House of Representatives spokesperson Blayheg, al-Agouri called for opening an Indian consulate in Benghazi during the meeting in the city.
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Chargé d’Affaires of the Indonesian Embassy in Libya, Dede Achmad Rifai, arrived in Sirte. The diplomat held talks with representatives of the city’s municipal council to discuss “commercial and educational cooperation,” according to press reports.
