Latest news with #Misrata
Arab News
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Gaza marchers retreat to western Libya after being blocked
TUNIS: Pro-Palestinian activists on a march aiming to break Israel's Gaza blockade have retreated to the Misrata region of western Libya after being blocked by the authorities in the country's east, organizers said on Sunday. The 'Soumoud' convoy — meaning steadfastness in Arabic — decided to fall back near Misrata, about 200 km east of Tripoli, after being stopped by the eastern authorities. Misrata is administered by the UN-recognized Government of National Unity based in Tripoli, while military commander Khalifa Haftar controls the east. The convoy of more than 1,000 people from Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, and Tunisia had been under a 'military blockade' since Friday at the entrance to Sirte, a Haftar-controlled area. Organizers said they were subjected to a 'systematic siege,' with no access to food, water, or medicine, and communications severely disrupted. They also denounced the arrest of several convoy members, including at least three bloggers who had been documenting its journey since its departure from Tunisia on June 9. In a statement cited by Tunisia's La Presse newspaper, the Joint Action Coordination Committee for Palestine — the group behind the convoy — demanded the immediate release of 13 participants still held by eastern Libyan authorities. In an accompanying video, it reaffirmed its intention to continue the mission to Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt, with the aim of 'breaking the blockade and ending the genocide of the Palestinian people resisting in Gaza.' In Egypt, a separate initiative — the Global March to Gaza, intended to bring together participants from 80 countries — was halted on Friday by authorities en route to the city of Ismailia, east of Cairo. Dozens of activists were intercepted, reportedly beaten, had passports confiscated, and were forcibly loaded onto buses by police at multiple checkpoints, according to videos shared on social media and with AFP.
Arab News
15-06-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Libya is without justice, peace and a functioning state
Fourteen years since the revolution, Libya's institutional framework has undergone near-total dissolution, as evidenced by the state's effective surrender of responsibility for core sovereign functions to nonstate actors. Clashes in Tripoli last month, triggered by the assassination of a militia commander in circumstances under the guise of negotiations, resulted in nine documented civilian fatalities and 47 injuries, all with absolute impunity for the perpetrators, reflecting a systemic pattern in which violence has been monetized by the ruling elites. This incident was not an anomaly but the inevitable byproduct of a rentier political economy dominated by kleptocratic networks and external sponsors. Despite generating $50 million daily from the export of 1.2 million barrels of oil, Tripoli remains fractured, split into militia fiefdoms in which any nominal state authority depends entirely on 120-plus armed groups. These factions control informal and illicit economies, including human trafficking corridors that funnel thousands of migrants each year to Europe, municipal extortion rackets and parallel 'customs' operations at ports such as Misrata. Hydrocarbon revenues subsidize militia salaries and systems of patronage instead of funding public services, creating a self-perpetuating war economy in which institutional collapse is not a failure but a design feature to enable elite capture. The Tripoli-based government's fumbled 'purge' last month constituted a predatory realignment, not a much-needed change or institutional reform. When state-aligned forces eliminated a rival militia commander during a purported negotiation, they seized control of Abu Salim, a district that controls vital central bank access points that are responsible for processing an estimated $1.8 billion a month in hydrocarbon revenues. The maneuver exposed the Government of National Unity's existential paradox: it exterminates competing factions while relying entirely on aligned militias such as the 444th Combat Brigade, which receives $15 million to $20 million a month from state coffers for 'security services.' The inevitable urban warfare last month demonstrated the ways in which violence services the competition between elites for dwindling resources. Libya's $6 billion quarterly oil revenues remain captive to this cycle of predation, with the militias systematically diverting more than a third of the proceeds through fuel-smuggling syndicates that move more than 100,000 barrels a day. Meanwhile parallel 'customs' operations at the Port of Tripoli impose a 25 percent 'tariff' surcharge. Taking control of Abu Salim alone secured illicit revenues worth $300 million a month, confirming militia consolidation as a resource grab mechanism through which state collapse enables elite enrichment. Meanwhile, foreign engagement in Libya operates as a transactional marketplace in which external powers exchange military capital for access to resources, with zero regard for Libyan sovereignty or stability. Turkiye's 5,000-troop garrison and drone bases near Tripoli oversee hydrocarbon-rich maritime zones, while Russian mercenary forces at Al-Qardabiyah Airbase guard Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar's eastern oil terminals and are repaid with crude oil allocations worth about 80,000 barrels a day. Such engagement fuels fragmentation, a strategy that Washington has also co-opted as part of its rather puzzling policy on Libya. On the one hand, the US expresses explicit support for the Tripoli-based parallel authority. On the other, it simultaneously makes diplomatic overtures to the eastern-based rival government — which is actively mobilizing troops toward Sirte, positioning it to seize $50 million per day in oil revenues — and holding joint military exercises that lend it legitimacy. Hydrocarbon revenues subsidize militia salaries and systems of patronage instead of funding public services. Hafed Al-Ghwell With more than 12 foreign military bases now established, the disintegration of Libya is not collateral damage but the intended outcome of resource access opportunism masquerading as diplomacy. Beneath this warlord calculus, there simmers the prospect of societal collapse as a result of deliberately engineered scarcity; 200 percent inflation eviscerates household purchasing power, while 18-hour-a-day electricity blackouts cripple critical sectors and industry, despite the billions of dollars of hydrocarbon revenue flowing in each year. This systematic deprivation fuels mass dissent, as evidenced by the 4,000 citizens who chanted 'neither east nor west' during protests last month, serving as a direct indictment of all ruling factions after 1,400 days of undelivered election promises. Meanwhile, youth unemployment stands at a staggering 40 percent, reflecting generational abandonment, compounded by resource-hoarding by elites — such as the millions in embezzled dam maintenance funds, a direct result of which was the Derna dam collapses in September 2023 that resulted in at least 5,000 preventable deaths, a figure exceeding the number of front-line combat deaths. As a consequence, public fury is on the rise, as evidenced by the nightly burning of tires and occupation of ministry buildings, protests that are often met with live militia fire. Beyond Libya's own borders, the disintegration of the country actively metastasizes into regional instability, with militia-controlled coastal networks dispatching thousands of migrants each year across the Mediterranean. This human commodity market intersects with the implosion of Sudan, where 9 million displaced persons have fled conflict zones, alongside the funneling of small arms into and out of Libya through porous southern borders. The concern, therefore, is that a renewed Tripoli-Benghazi civil war could trigger immediate and very grave consequences that would dwarf even the descent into conflict of neighboring Sudan. It would not only be a matter of the potentially unprecedented scale of human suffering it might cause, but the domino effect on the global economy of disruption to oil exports in a country that contains about 41 percent of Africa's total proven reserves, while also accelerating refugee flows. Appointments of UN envoys and ceasefire agreements remain largely performative when global powers are actively fueling conflict. The collapse of the Government of National Unity and the ascendance of Haftar prove that Libya's 'leaders' prioritize personal enrichment over the establishment of a credible and sustainable social contract. With international diplomatic missions now fleeing Tripoli for Tunis and militias stockpiling weaponry, the question now is not whether the violence will escalate but when the spillover will force a reevaluation of the international complacency and a recalibration of approaches. In the meantime, an accountability vacuums persist. Without the prosecution of those accused of embezzlement or war crimes, the demilitarization of cities and an end to foreign arms flows, Libya's frozen conflict will thaw into a regional conflagration. A forensic auditing process must commence before the next dam breaks because, every 3.6 seconds, another barrel of oil adds more funds to this engineered chaos, while the spark of regional ignition draws ever closer.
Asharq Al-Awsat
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
UN Mission Holds Consultations to Solve Issues Blocking Progress Toward Elections in Libya
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Saturday held consultations with key officials in Libya's Zintan and Misrata to discuss the recommendations of the Advisory Committee to resolve key contentious issues that are blocking progress toward elections. In Misrata, head of UNSMIL, Hanna Tetteh, and her deputy, Stephanie Koury, met with mayor Mahmoud Al Soqatri, municipal council officials, House of Representative and High Council of State members, in addition to civil society representatives, youth and the Military Zone Commander of the Central Zone and member of the Truce Committee, Lieutenant General Mohamed Musa. 'The price paid by Libyans across the country from continued political deadlock has been too high,' Tetteh said. 'The Advisory Committee has now finished, and their recommendations are public. It is now that the real work begins to find a way forward for an inclusive political process,' she added. The meetings in both cities are part of a series of community consultations which will take place across the country as the Mission starts a public consultation process on the Advisory Committee recommendations in Libya. The community engagements will be held online and in towns and cities across the country by the Mission to gather the views of a wide range of people, including community leaders, notables, youth, women, cultural components those with disabilities, military leaders and elected officials, UNSMIL said in a statement. 'Discussions across all meetings focused extensively on the recent clashes in Tripoli and their potential implication for stability in the western region,' Tetteh said during her visits in Misrata and Zintan. She added that participants emphasized the urgent need for political, social and economic inclusivity, and the need to implement robust ceasefire and security arrangements.
Kuwait Times
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Kuwait Times
Gunbattles rock Libya capital after brief lull
UN calls for immediate, unconditional ceasefire in all areas TRIPOLI: Fresh gunbattles have erupted in the Libyan capital between two powerful armed groups, a security official said Wednesday, just a day after authorities declared the fighting over. Clashes flared between the Radaa force and the 444 Brigade in key areas of the city, including the port, the source said. No official casualty figures have been released for the latest fight yet, but the Libyan Red Crescent said it recovered a dead body from a major street in Tripoli. The official described the fighting as "urban warfare", with intermittent clashes in residential areas involving light and medium weapons. In other areas, heavy weapons were being used. Libya has struggled to recover from years of unrest since the NATO-backed 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Ghaddafi. The country remains split between a UN-recognized government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east, controlled by the Haftar family. Fighting extended in southern and western Tripoli as Radaa and "groups supporting it came as reinforcements against the 444 Brigade", the interior ministry source said. On Monday night, heavy arms fire and explosions rocked several Tripoli districts, killing at least six people, according to authorities. Reports said Abdelghani Al-Kikli, leader of the Support and Stability Apparatus which controls the southern district of Abu Salim, had also been killed at a facility controlled by the 444 Brigade. 'Territorial reshuffle' A source told AFP groups were moving into the capital from neighboring Zawiya in support of Radaa. Meanwhile, "more Misrata brigades may continue to join Dbeibah's side", said Libya expert Jalel Harchaoui. He described the latest conflict as "more dangerous" for the capital in recent years, saying it meant a "territorial reshuffle" with more factions "seeking to insinuate themselves into downtown Tripoli". The 444 Brigade controls parts of southern Tripoli and is aligned with Dbeibah, whereas Radaa controls parts in the capital's east and holds several key state facilities. On Tuesday, the Tripoli-based government said the fighting had been brought under control as Dbeibah thanked government forces "for restoring security and asserting the state's authority in the capital". Dbeibah also announced a string of executive orders including dissolving some bodies previously run by Tripoli armed groups other than the 444 Brigade. But a second night of fighting could mean "a more prolonged, destructive, and existential battle with a nationwide dimension" after what he said was Dbeibah's "failure to secure a quick victory". Authorities also announced a ceasefire, but gunshots were still heard in western parts of Tripoli. The United Nations mission in Libya said it was "deeply alarmed by escalating violence in densely populated neighborhoods of Tripoli for the second night in a row". In a statement, it called for "an immediate, unconditional ceasefire in all areas, allowing safe corridors for the evacuation of civilians trapped in intense conflict zones". — AFP
Asharq Al-Awsat
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Türkiye Evacuates 82 Nationals From Libya after Unrest
Türkiye evacuated 82 of its nationals from the Libyan capital Tripoli after several days of fatal clashes between armed groups, foreign ministry sources said late Friday. "Eighty-two citizens who wanted to return to Türkiye were assisted in their departure from Libya and allowed to return home," the source said, referring to "the conflict and insecurity" that has gripped the North African nation in recent days. The move came a day after the Turkish embassy said in a post on Facebook that it was preparing to evacuate its nationals via a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul from the Libyan port city of Misrata, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) east of Tripoli. It said it would organise bus transport from the capital, AFP reported. The ministry did not give details about those who returned home and didn't say whether more flights were planned. Violence flared in the Libyan capital late on Monday between loyalist forces and powerful armed groups that the government is trying to dismantle. The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Friday said "at least eight civilians" were killed in heavy clashes, which took place over the following days, bringing air traffic to an almost total standstill. Although relative calm returned to Tripoli earlier on Friday, the situation remained highly volatile. Türkiye, which backs the UN-recognized government in Tripoli led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, called on Wednesday for a truce and said it was "closely monitoring" the situation.
