Khalifa Haftar - The African Mirror

Sep

2021

Libya’s moment of danger in push for peace

ANGUS McDOWALL LYBIA’S best chance of peace in years is at risk of unravelling as factions tussle over looming national elections that were envisaged as a way to end a decade of chaotic division. As a cast of factional leaders position themselves for a presidential run, many Libyans are bracing for a return to violence whether the vote goes ahead as planned on December 24 or not. Already, the eastern commander Khalifa Haftar has paved the way for a campaign by handing his duties to an acolyte, while Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former dictator, has indicated he…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Libya’s key coast road open

NEWS

LIBYA'S warring sides reopened the main coast road across the frontline, a key element of a ceasefire they agreed last year that has involved months of negotiations. The U.N.-backed 5+5 committee drawn from commander Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) and western-based forces that have supported Tripoli-based governments said in a statement the road was open from 0900 GMT. The road, which stretches along the length of Libya's coastline, the most populated part of the country, was cut between the cities of Misrata and Sirte, where the frontline stabilised last summer. It was not open to military traffic, the…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Egypt’s Sisi opens naval base

NEWS

AIDAN LEWIS EGYPTIAN President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has inaugurated a large naval base 135 km from the border with Libya, flanked by close ally Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Libya's unity president. Egypt says the July 3 base will help it protect strategic and economic interests as well as helping guard against irregular migration as it boosts its naval presence on the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. At the inauguration, two Mistral helicopter carriers acquired from France were on display alongside a German-made submarine and two recently delivered FREMM-class Italian frigates. Naval forces performed exercises…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Libya’s Haftar closes border with Algeria

NEWS

FORCES loyal to Libya's eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar have closed the border with Algeria, they said on Sunday, after major deployments of his forces to the south underscored his continued role despite efforts to unify the country. Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) last week sent troops into the southern city of Sebha, which was already allied to eastern forces, and then on Saturday to a southern border crossing with Algeria. "The armed forces has closed the Libyan-Algerian border and declared it a military zone in which movement is prohibited", said the Moral Guidance Department, an LNA media unit. The nearly…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Libyan interim PM delays trip to east

NEWS

LIBYA's new interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh postponed a visit to the country's east to demonstrate his unity government's progress in ending years of division between warring factions. His spokesman Mohamed Hamouda said in a social media post that the visit had been postponed without giving details. The delay underscores the continued friction between rival camps in the capital Tripoli, in the west, and Benghazi, in the east, the stronghold of commander Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA). East and west sides formed rival administrations in 2014, further dividing a country already beset by the chaos and violence that followed…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Libya force frees prisoners

NEWS

FORCES in Zawiya in western Libya yesterday released more than 100 captives taken from Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) to solidify a months-long ceasefire and moves towards national unity. The men had been held since April 2019 when Haftar launched an assault to seize control of the capital, Tripoli, and other areas in the northwest, ending with his retreat last summer. Libya's warring sides agreed a ceasefire in October in Geneva, and political talks led this month to agreement on a new unity government to replace the two rival administrations that had ruled in east and west. The…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Libya to investigate discovery of bodies in Benghazi

NEWS

THE prime minister of Libya's new unity government has instructed the attorney general to open an investigation into the discovery of bodies in Benghazi. Local media said more than a dozen bodies of people shot dead were found on Thursday in the eastern city that is the stronghold of Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), whose assault on the capital Tripoli was repulsed last year. Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, who was selected through a United Nations-led process and took office this week, tweeted that such events cannot be tolerated or covered up. "I gave direct instructions to the Interior Minister…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Libyan parliament reunites

NEWS

AYMAN AL-WARFALI THE opposing factions of Libya's divided parliament met in a frontline city on Monday for the first time after years of war and chaos, to debate a proposed unity government to oversee national elections this year under an international peace plan. More than 130 parliament members have travelled for the session to Sirte, a city battered by repeated battles since the 2011 NATO-backed rising against Muammar Gaddafi that left Libya with no strong central government for a decade. The city is now held by Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA), which retreated there last year after failing…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Libya power brokers welcome accord

NEWS

LIBYA’S parallel eastern administration has welcomed the announcement of a new interim government to unite the country but added it would only cede power if the eastern-based parliament approved. Yesterday’s qualified statement of support - leaving scope to oppose the move later - illustrates the challenges that may face U.N.-led efforts to find a political solution to a decade of chaos, division and violence. Libya has been split between east and west since 2014, with the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, and a rival administration in Benghazi backed by Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA).…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Factional risks hover as Libya’s U.N. peace process advances

NEWS

LIBYANS working under a U.N. peace process on Tuesday agreed a mechanism to choose a new temporary government to oversee the run-up to elections late this year, in the hope that it can avoid being scuppered by factional rivalries. It follows weeks of negotiation after a political dialogue in Tunis in November among 75 Libyans, selected by the U.N. Libya mission, charted a roadmap towards elections but failed to agree on how to form an interim government. Libya has known little peace since Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011, in an uprising backed by NATO, and has been split since…