Libya Security Highlights (July 4 – 10, 2022)

NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES

• Yousef Al-Aqouri, a member of parliament, has expressed on Thursday his “deep regret and sadness” over increase of migrants deaths off Libya’s shores. Al-Aqouri, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged on the Libyan Coast Guard to make “more efforts to respond to all distress calls”. He accused human traffickers of being responsible for the death of migrants as they are “taking advantage of the difficult conditions that migrants are going through in order to make money at the expense of their suffering.”

• The Libyan National Army (LNA) has sent a group of its military units to the Southern town of Murzuq to boost security. Forces of the army’s 634th Battalion was tasked with securing the entry and exit points, according to LNA’s media office. The LNA also affirmed that security in Murzuq “will be strengthened to prevent illegal actions, including acts of terrorism.” Major General Al-Mabrouk Sahban, LNA’s Commander of the Southern Operations Force, had previously announced on June 23, that the displaced residents of Murzuq are starting to return to their homes following the army’s security operation against armed groups affiliated with ISIS.

• On the period of 26 June – 02 July 2022, 633 migrants have been disembarked back on Libyan shores, according to International Organization for Migration. So far in 2022, 9,973 migrants have been disembarked on Libyan shores, IOM said on Tuesday. It added that 166 migrants died and 611 went missing in the period from 1 Jan to 2 July, 2022 on the Central Mediterranean route.

• Speaking at Monday’s cabinet meeting, Interior Minister Khaled Mazin said the demonstrations in Martyr Sq led by NGO ‘‘Beltrees Youth Movement’’ had applied for permission and received approval for their demonstration. He stressed that demonstrating peacefully was a right. He said the organised demonstration went well. There were no injuries or deaths during the demonstrations across Libya. This despite reports of gun shots being fire above demonstrators’ heads in some cities. The Ministry of Interior said it offered all the protection needed for the demonstrators to practice their right to peaceful protest.

NATIONAL POLITICS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

• Pope Francis today called on Libyan parties, with the help of the international community, to find “convincing solutions” for the country. After praying the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis urged peace for the sake of “the people of Libya and in particular the young people and all those who suffer because of the serious social and economic problems in the country.” He called on the country’s rival parties “to seek convincing solutions with the help of the international community through constructive dialogue and natural reconciliation.”
• Fathi Bashagha, appointed as prime minister by the parliament in a challenge to a unity government in Tripoli, plans to take office in the capital “in the coming days,” he told AFP. In May, Bashagha arrived in the capital Tripoli in the country’s west and attempted to take office there, sparking pre-dawn clashes between armed groups supporting him and those backing his rival Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh. He backed down, he told AFP, to avoid bloodshed, but says he has since received “positive invitations” to enter the capital.

• Mohamed al-Menfi, chairman of Libya’s Presidential Council, arrived in the city of Tawergha on Saturday where he met with social and political leaders in order to promote the council’s national reconciliation project. The 46-year-old chairman “affirmed his support for the city and the people of Tawergha, adding that it is an integral part of the national reconciliation project that the Presidential Council seeks to implement to bridge the rift and achieve peace among all Libyans.”
• The United Nations Human Right Council has extended the mandate of the fact-finding mission on Libya during its 50th session on Friday. The council adopted, without a vote, a resolution on technical assistance and capacity building to improve human rights in Libya. This resolution stipulates the extension of the fact-finding mission for “a final, non-extendable period of nine months to present its concluding recommendations,” according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
• Libya’s decade-long transitional period must end with “free and fair” presidential and parliamentary elections, the chairman of the Presidential Council reiterated on Thursday. Mohamed Menfi made his remarks during a meeting a group of candidates who are seeking to compete for parliamentary seats in the upcoming elections. The 46-year-old chairman told the aspiring candidates that he is working to “bridge the views of the parties in the political process,” according to the council’s statement. He affirmed that elections should be held within “a legal framework agreed upon by all parties”.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

• Colonel Abdeslam Almassoudi, Public Affairs Director at Libya’s Stability Support Apparatus (SSA) met with the founders of the so-called “The People’s Will Movement” in the office of the apparatus in the capital, Tripoli, according to an email press release sent to Libyan Express. This visit is part of the joint co-operation of civil society institutions and SSA in an effort ensure that the movement pursues its activities and asserts legitimate rights in a manner that does not conflict with the regulations and laws and does not expose public and private assets to the danger of sabotage, Colonel Abdeslam Almassoudi said in a statement. With no further ado, the SSA reiterates its support for freedom of opinion and expression.

• Deputy Chairman of Libya’s Presidential Council, Moussa al-Koni, has called for an international conference similar to the Berlin conferences, bringing together all of the country’s rival parties to resolve ongoing differences, according to a statement by the council on Tuesday. Al-Koni made his appeal during a meeting with German Ambassador to Libya Michael Ohnmacht. He told the German diplomat that there is a “need to continue the political path that Germany sponsored during the first and second Berlin conferences, to bring together the Libyan parties,” according to the council.

• The Secretary-General of the Arab Maghreb Union, Tayeb Bakouche, confirmed that the General Secretariat of the Union is closely following up on the situation in Libya, noting that the situation that has deteriorated recently is a cause for great concern. Bakouche said in a statement: “Whenever the feeling of closeness to the solution prevails, there are events that take the situation backward, politically, security and socially, as if there are parties from inside and outside that do not want the solution and are working to abort it.”