Libya Security Highlights (August 29 – September 04, 2022)

NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES

• Libyan armed factions fought in the western outskirts of Tripoli late on Friday and early Saturday as forces aligned with Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh’s government further consolidated their control over the capital. Fighting took place in Warshafala, a district west of Tripoli that has been the site of repeated clashes throughout the 11 years of violence and chaos since a NATO-backed uprising ousted veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi. According to Tripoli’s Ambulance and Emergency Service, five people, all from the same family, were wounded in the aftermath of the clashes. The clashes, along with a major pro-Dbeibah group taking over a military headquarters in southern Tripoli, come a week after Libya’s biggest bout of warfare for two years, as several rival factions battled in and around the capital.

• The Libyan authorities on Wednesday announced the recovery of 15 unidentified bodies from two mass graves in the city of Sirte, some 450 km east of the capital Tripoli. “Field team of the Remains Search Department recovered 15 bodies of unknown identities in the yard of Ibn Sina university hospital in Sirte,” said the General Authority for Research and Identification of Missing Persons in a statement. One mass grave contained seven bodies while the other contained eight, it said, adding their DNA samples would be compared with those of the relatives of the registered missing.
• The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has facilitated the evacuations of more than 100 refugees, including 38 children, on a flight out of Libya to Rwanda, announced the U.N. agency on Thursday, September 1. “They will receive shelter and assistance at the Emergency Transit Mechanism in Gashora,” UNHCR added via Twitter.

• The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) helped 41 refugees leave Libya on flights to be resettled in Norway this week, the agency revealed on Wednesday, 31st of August. According to UNHCR, the flights were funded by Italy and the European Union. “We urge states to offer more safe and legal pathways to help vulnerable asylum seekers find safety out of Libya,” said UNHCR via Twitter.

• The Military Information Division of the 128th Brigade of the Libyan National Army (LNA) confirmed the continuation of military desert patrols on vital and border points across the desert in southwestern Libya. The Division published photos of desert patrols on the border strip in the southwest of Libya.

• 1,216 migrants have been disembarked back on Libyan shores in the period from 21 to 27 August, 2022, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). So far in 2022, 14,157 migrants have been disembarked on Libyan shores, IOM said. It added that 216 migrants died and 724 went missing in the period from 1 Jan to 27 August, 2022 on the Central Mediterranean route.

• The U.N. Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya announced on Monday, August 29, that is monitoring the unfolding situation in the country’s capital and compiling evidence of human rights violations, few days after clashes erupted between armed groups causing the death of 32 people with 159 injured. In a statement published on the website of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the mission said that its investigators are “monitoring reports of indiscriminate shelling resulting in civilian deaths and massive destruction of civilian property, including vehicles, houses, buildings, and medical facilities.”

• Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, General Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), paid a surprise visit on Monday, August 29, to the city of Kufra, located in south-eastern Libya, where he met with community leaders and army soldiers placed there. In a speech during the visit’s ceremony, Haftar emphasized that “we did not build an army to stand by and watch Libya dragged into the abyss by abusers,” noting that the decisive solution “is in the hands of the people and they must lead the scene by themselves to recover their rights and build their state.”
• Body of an Egyptian migrant was recovered from capsized boat carrying 27 people off Tolmeitha town, east of Benghazi. The body was recovered by members of the Tolmeitha Maritime Rescue Unit and Combating Illegal Migration Agency, following a report from the 153rd Infantry Brigade about the presence of the body. In the past two days, the Tolmeitha Maritime Rescue Unit announced that 5 migrants had been found, noting that they had been taken to the hospital to receive first aid.

NATIONAL POLITICS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

• Outgoing Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dabaiba visited al-Sadiq al-Ghariani, the former Mufti of Libya, at home in Tajoura, east of Tripoli, a government source told The Libya Update. Al-Ghariani Requested a budget for Dar Al-Ifta to support his religious schools, according to the source. Dabaiba asked al-Ghariani for support by his Islamist militias, including Mahmoud bin Rajab and Bashir al-Buqra groups, in any possible military confrontation, the source pointed out.
• The UK has congratulated the Senegalese diplomat Abdoulaye Bathily on his appointment as Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Libya, according to the British Embassy in Libya. “We look forward to working with him to drive progress towards stability, unity and national elections in Libya,” the Embassy tweeted on Sunday, September 4.
  

  
• Libya’s Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush and Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Buccino Grimaldi, met in Tripoli on Saturday, September 3, to discuss the latest political developments in the country, said the Libyan Foreign Ministry. The two diplomats also discussed the preparations for the international conference to be held in the German capital Berlin in the coming weeks in the presence of representatives of China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia and the United States.
• The Security Council on Friday approved former Senegalese minister and U.N. diplomat Abdoulaye Bathily as the new U.N. envoy to Libya, ending a nine-month vacancy. The vote came a day after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had nominated Bathily. The 75-year-old succeeds Ján Kubiš of Slovakia, who previously served as special envoy and head of U.N. Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). In a statement on Friday, UNSMIL said that Bathily “brings to this position over 40 years of experience with his national Government, academic institutions, regional organizations and the United Nations system.”

• UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, told Security Council on Tuesday that she was deeply concerned the ongoing stalemate and continued delays in implementing the electoral process in Libya pose a growing threat to security in and around Tripoli, and potentially to all Libyans.
• The Speaker of Libya’s House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, and the Chairman of the High Council of State , Khaled Al-Mishri, will hold a brief meeting in Cairo, on Wednesday, August 31, Italian news agency Nova reports. Citing unnamed “Libyan parliamentary source”, Nova stated the meeting would cover the most controversial issues of the basic constitution for the elections, namely the articles on the dual citizenship of the next president and the candidacy of military personnel.
• The Military Prosecutor of the Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba government issued orders to arrest the commander of the Western Military Region, Major General Osama Al-Juwaily, the Prime Minister-designate from the House of Representatives, Fathi Bashagha, Bashagha’s Minister of Health and his government spokesperson, Othman Abdel-Jalil, and the head of the Democratic Party, Mohamed Sawan. This came after Aldabaiba ordered yesterday the arrest of anyone involved in the “attack on Tripoli”, both civilian and military.
• Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, Libya’s outgoing prime minister, called on all the main Libyan protagonists to leave the scene, but through elections. Speaking in a recorded televised speech a day after deadly clashes erupted in Tripoli, Dbeibeh accused the country’s the House of Representatives and High Council of State of pretending to want elections but in reality, doing everything possible to avoid elections.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

• The 158th session of the Council of the Arab League, at the level of permanent delegates, convened at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Arab League, headed by Libya. According to Libya’s delegation at the Arab Leagues, the session comes ahead of a meeting on Tuesday, which will be held at the level of foreign ministers. According to the council’s agenda, the Arab League’s permanent delegates will discuss developments in Libya, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen as well as the Israeli-Palestnian conflict among other issues.
• Libyan outgoing Prime Minister, Abdel Hamid Dabaiba, signed with his Maltese counterpart, Robert Abela, two cooperation agreements between the two countries. This came on the sidelines of talks that Dabaiba held Wednesday in the Maltese capital Valletta with his Maltese counterpart, Robert Abela, in the presence of the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Siddiq Al-Kabir, and a number of ministers of Dabaiba’s government. Dabaiba government said in a statement Thursday that the two agreements provide for joint cooperation in the field of electrical interconnection and renewable energies.
• The Libyan outgoing Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dabaiba, met Thursday, September 1, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, and Head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, Hakan Fidan. The Prime Minister’s media office said in a brief statement that the meeting, held in Istanbul, came within the framework of “unifying international and local efforts to support the elections in Libya.” Dabaiba’s visit to Turkey was not announced in advance, knowing that he visited Malta Wednesday with the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Siddiq Al-Kabeer, and other Ministers of Dabaiba’s government.

• U.S. Assistant Secretary Barbara Leaf and U.S. Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland held talks in Tunis on Wednesday, August 31, to discuss “prospects for boosting the U.S. diplomatic presence in Libya to promote stability, security cooperation, economic growth, and sustainable development”. “We eagerly hope that the U.S. Embassy in Libya can permanently return to Tripoli as soon as possible to provide consular, trade promotion, educational advising, and other services,” stated the office of Near Eastern Affairs at the U.S. State Department via Twitter.
• Libya’s outgoing prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh landed in the Maltese capital Valetta and was welcomed by the country’s Foreign Minister Ian Borg upon arrival, announced the Libyan government. Dbeibeh, who was accompanied by the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya Saddek Elkaber, is scheduled to meet with Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela, according to a report by the Times of Malta. Italian news agency Nova reported that According to the Times of Malta newspaper, the Prime Minister of the Gun will hold talks with Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela. Among the topics at the center of the discussions could also be the thorny issue of Libya’s frozen funds in Malta.

• Head of the Military Investment Authority of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Major General Ramadan Bu Aisha, announced the date for holding the first conference on the role of military investment in supporting development. Bu Aisha said in a press briefing that the conference will be held on September 4 and 5, at the Garyounis Economy Control Hall in Benghazi, with the participation of many Arab and regional countries.