Libya Security Highlights (February 13-19, 2023)

NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES

More than 1,300 irregular migrants have reached Italy’s Lampedusa island over the past two days, local media reported on Saturday, February 18. A total of 28 boats from Libya and Tunisia, carrying 1,397 migrants, arrived in Lampedusa over the past 48 hours, according to Rai News 24.

Italian prosecutors have ordered the arrest of a Syrian citizen accused of attempting to ship to Libya and Saudi Arabia 14 tons of Captagon and three tons of hashish, which were seized in 2020 in the port of Salerno. Judge Francesco Guerra of the Court of Salerno accused Taher Al-Kayali of international drug trafficking. Al-Kayali, 63, is currently on the run. Italy’s Guardia di Finanza (financial police) believe he is no longer on Italian territory, but the search for the man is ongoing, with foreign authorities also involved, the Guardia di Finanza in Salerno told Il Mattino newspaper.

An inflatable rubber boat carrying migrants wrecked off the coast of Libya and 73 people were missing and presumed dead, the U.N. migration agency said Wednesday, February 15. It was the latest tragedy involving migrants seeking better lives in Europe. The U.N. International Organization for Migration said in a statement that the disaster took place Tuesday and that Libya authorities had retrieved 11 bodies. It said the boat, packed with around 80 migrants, reportedly departed from the village of Qasr al-Akhyar, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of the capital, Tripoli. The migrants were heading to European shores, it said.

Al-Marj, east of Benghazi, was hit by a slight earthquake, felt by most of the city’s residents. The al-Marj local radio said the slight earthquake at 08:12 a.m. was different from its predecessors, but rather stronger, where it woke many people from their sleep.
This morning, Monday, February 13, the Ocean Viking rescued 84 people, including 58 unaccompanied minors, who were on an overcrowded rubber dinghy in international waters off the coast of Libya. SOS Mediterranee and IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) teams cared for many of the survivors suffering from dehydration and hypothermia. According to SOS Mediterranee, Ravenna, north of Italy, was assigned by Italian authorities to disembark the 84 survivors onboard Ocean Viking.

NATIONAL POLITICS AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Libyan leaders and foreign parties, especially Egypt and Turkey, must understand that the solution of the Libyan crisis is in their hands, said the former United Nations envoy to Libya, Stephanie Williams. The US diplomat added, during the first session of the Libyan-American Council conference held on Thursday, that “external interference is one of the characteristics of the Libyan crisis and has become part of it: some have taken advantage of the division in Libya.”
UN envoy to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, said he met in Moscow with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, where they discussed the current situation in Libya and the challenges facing the restoration of the electoral process. Bathily added that they “both agreed that the international community must play a crucial role in helping Libyan people achieve their goal of having inclusive parliamentary and presidential elections in 2023.”
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Abdoulaye Bathily, held consultations in Berlin with the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, on the political and security situation in Libya, in the presence by the German government’s special envoy for the Libyan question, Christian Bock.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, sent on Sunday, February 19, a medical aid convoy to the eastern city of Al-Marj after a mild earthquake hit the city several times last week. The government also announced the establishment of a Emergency Medicine and Support Center in the city to provide medical and logistical support in the city to address the aftermath of the earthquake.

The Deputy Chairman of Libya’s Presidential Council, Abdullah Al-Lafi, held a meeting with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed on the sidelines of the African Union summit. According to a statement by the Libyan council, Al-Lafi praised Ahmed’s efforts to “achieve peace in Ethiopia and the depth of Libyan-Ethiopian relations, and Libya’s keenness to enhance cooperation and partnership with Ethiopia in many fields.”
Italian ambassador to Libya, Giuseppe Buccino, and Resident Representative of the UN Development Program (UNDP) in Libya, Marc-André Franche, agreed in Tripoli to extend partnership to support free and fair elections as the only path forward to resolve the political stalemate, according UNDP in Libya. Italy reaffirmed its commitment to support the Libyan High National Elections Commission (HNEC) preparedness to hold free and fair elections, UNDP tweeted.