Libya is Violating the UN’s Arms Embargo Says UN Report

Libya’s military malaise has deepened further this year after the mired chaos since the NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed Muhammar Gadhafi eight years ago says a UN report.

UN experts further published in the report this week accusing an array of firms and external powers violating a 2011 embargo by delivering arms or fighters to the North African country.

According to the report, Eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar in April launched an offensive against the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), a military campaign that the UN experts say has unleashed new transfers of military equipment to Libya.

‘the arms embargo was ineffective, and resulted in regular maritime and their transfers to Libya of military materials.’ The UN experts conclude.

The ship being bought by Haftars’s forces for 1.5 million, the vessel was supposed to be delivered to Alexandria, the report says, but instead arrived in the eastern Libyan coastal of Benghazi without ever docking at the Egyptian port, the UN investigators found.

In an interview, last month with AFP, Ghassan Salame, the head of the UN mission in Libya, decried the escalated activity of “external parties”.

The UN report highlights Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey as regular embargo violators, with Amman and Abu Dhabi allegedly funneling arms to Haftar, while Ankara equips the GNA.

More and more sophisticated arms including drones, armored vehicles, and anti-tank missiles have been delivered to the two camps in recent months.

The report accuses the UAE of delivering a Russian air defense system (Pantsir-S1) to Haftar’s forces.

The report says foreign combatants have been recruited by both sides, including from Sudan and Chad, but makes no mention of Russian mercenaries who — according to media reports denied by Moscow — have fought alongside Haftar’s forces.

The UN experts say that the Sudanese fighters were sent to Libya under a contract signed in Khartoum on May 7 between Canadian firm Dickens & Madson and Daglo, in the name of Sudan’s military council.

The contract, annexed to the UN report, saw the company pledge to Daglo that it would “strive to obtain funding for your council” from Haftar’s administration in exchange for the military assistance.

Contacted by AFP, the RSF denied sending any soldiers to Libya.

The experts said they were still examining the role played by the Canadian company in the alleged deployment of Sudanese soldiers.

They deplored the persistent and growing involvement of international and regional actors, both state and non-state, as a military stalemate continues on the ground on the outskirts of Tripoli.

This week, Ankara even promised to send troops to Libya to support the GNA, if required, further exacerbating tensions.

In a bid to revive the political process, Salame has set up an international conference in Berlin for early 2020 with the stated goal of putting to an end to international divisions on Libya.