NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES
- Relatives of people on a boat carrying 110 migrants that went off radar after allegedly being shot at by the Libyan coastguard fear the passengers have been chased all the way to Libya. Migrant emergency hotline Alarm Phone is claiming the people onboard – who had left from Lebanon – had told the NGO before going missing that they had been shot at and chased by a vessel believed to be from the Libyan coastguard. They said one person had been injured, one engine had broken down and they were trying to reach Greek shores.
- Seventeen Indian nationals, who were held captive by an armed group in Libya, have been rescued and brought back to India, according to multiple reports by Indian press. The Indian nationals, hailing from Punjab and Haryana, reached Delhi on Sunday evening, they said. The Indians were reportedly being held captive by an armed group in Zwara City in Libya after they were trafficked to that country. On June 13, Libyan authorities were able to rescue the Indian nationals, but kept them in their custody, given that they had illegally entered the country.
NATIONAL POLITICS AND SOCIAL ISSUES
- The French Embassy in Libya denied reports alleging that Paris is involved in military operation in Libya. In a brief statement via X (formerly known as Twitter), the embassy described these “false information”. “The French Embassy in Libya denies the false information that has circulated in certain media and on social networks reporting French involvement in military operations in Libya،” it said in a statement.
- On Tuesday, August 22, the head of Libya’s National Elections Commission, Emad Al-Sayeh, met with the First Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Fawzi Al-Nuwairi, to discuss preparations for the upcoming general parliamentary and presidential elections as well as municipal elections. The meeting, held at the commission’s headquarters in Tripoli, addressed the challenges facing the body both operationally and technically with regards to procedures taken so far to prepare for the polls.
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The General Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, met with the Undersecretary of the Interior Ministry, Faraj Qaim. The meeting, held at LNA headquarters in Benghazi, reviewed the security plan and followed up on the progress of security work.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
- The President of Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso is expected to visit Libya soon within the framework of the role played by the African Union in supporting the political process in Libya, according to a statement by the Libyan Presidential Council on Sunday. Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Council Moussa Koni met with Sassou Nguesso on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit, and “discussed the process of working on national reconciliation, the mechanisms for achieving the stability that Libya needs, and its repercussions for the region and the entire continent.”
- Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Junus-Bek Evkurov arrived at Benina International Airport in Benghazi today ahead of a meeting with the General Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, Italian news agency Nova reports. Upon his arrival, Evkurov was welcomed by LNA’s Chief of Staff of the Security Units, Brigadier General Khaled Khalifa Haftar and the Director of the General Commander’s Office, Lieutenant-General Khairy Al-Tamimi.
