#libyan conflict

France and Turkey’s Feuding Over Africa and how this is leading to over power both regionally and globally fighting for control

The Republic of France and the Republic of Turkey have not gotten along in the last few years, with the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, calling the president of the fifth French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, ‘brain-dead’. The big reason for this growing feuding and possibly rivalry is Turkey wishing to expand its influence in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa at the expense of the…

By Nour Youssef and Declan Walsh, NY Times, July 6, 2017

CAIRO--After three years of sporadic combat, the fighting is over in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, at least for now.

The city erupted in jubilation late Wednesday after the commander of a militia in the area, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, announced on television that his forces had vanquished the Islamist fighters they had been battling in Benghazi for the past three years. Wearing military-style regalia, General Hifter said that all that remained was to clear battle-scarred neighborhoods of land mines and unexploded ordnance.

Forces loyal to General Hifter, a brash and ambitious former Libyan Army officer, have prematurely claimed victory in Benghazi before. But this time residents said they believed that the news was genuine, with thousands of people streaming into the streets after his televised address to celebrate amid sounds of honking horns and triumphant gunfire.

If the peace holds this time it will be a milestone for General Hifter, who has emerged as the dominant commander in eastern Libya, with strong support from neighboring Egypt. It strengthens his hand in Libya’s chaotic power struggle, particularly against the rival government that is backed by the United Nations and based in Tripoli, the capital.

That administration, led by Prime Minister Fayez Serraj, has struggled to unite Libya, or even achieve control over Tripoli, since it was formed last year. It is opposed by another government, led by Islamists and other militia groups, that also claims authority over the divided Libyan capital.

Local media reported that a family of six was killed in the latest factional fighting near Tripoli’s only functioning airport this week.

General Hifter, at least, can claim unrivaled control over Benghazi, the main city in eastern Libya, where four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, were killed by a mob in 2012. General Hifter has been battling Islamist militants, including the Islamic State, for control of Benghazi since 2014, and he now appears to have won.

Still, General Hifter’s forces have been accused of human rights abuses, and some critics accuse him of seeking to emulate the strongman rule of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, who was ousted and killed in a bloody uprising in 2011.

General Hifter has made little secret of his ambition to become a national leader in Libya. In a televised address about two weeks ago, he told tribal leaders that if Libya’s conflict was not peacefully resolved by December, his forces would “take action.”

By Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post, May 26, 2017

TRIPOLI, Libya--The young militia fighters carried in a comrade who was covered in blood and motionless. It was 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Al Mokhtar Clinic, and Libya’s civil war had just reignited in this fractured capital.

“Move on, clear the way,” one fighter screamed. “He’s dying.”

Five hours earlier, on the eve of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, fierce clashes erupted between rival militias. They tore apart a two-month lull in the violence and upended the lives of countless Libyans in neighborhoods that turned into battle zones overnight.

The fighting also underscored the security and logistical challenges British investigators could face if they consider visiting Libya to pursue clues in the Manchester concert suicide bombing that killed 22 people this week. The bomber, Salman Abedi, was of Libyan origin, and his father and brother were arrested in Tripoli. Both are in the custody of a counterterrorism militia aligned with the Western-backed government.

Those challenges were evident during an hours-long drive Friday in a city fragmented as much by politics, ideology and geography as it is by violence and the thirst for power. In the southeastern enclaves, militias deployed tanks and used heavy artillery, leaving families trapped inside their homes and sending many civilians and fighters to hospitals with injuries. Authorities could not provide reliable casualty figures.

But in the northern neighborhoods, untouched by Friday’s violence, Tripoli residents surreally socialized in cafes and water-skied in the Mediterranean Sea, even as the sound of explosions and gunfire thundered nearby. Huge plumes of black smoke from burning buildings rose over the city.

“This has become normal for us,” said Shukri Salim, 27, a Libyan Airlines employee, who was having coffee with friends in a cafe and watching a televised soccer match.

“I knew it was Ramadan and the war is going to start,” said his friend Ayoub Aldabaa, 27, an accountant, who was with him. “We’re so accustomed to this.”

Last year, too, fighting engulfed the capital during Ramadan. That time, the clashes involved different militias.

It has been mostly like this since the 2011 populist uprising, part of the Arab Spring, that ousted Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi and led to his killing. A constellation of tribal and regional militias emerged, seizing advantage of the power vacuum and abundance of weapons in a quest for power and wealth.

Today, militias have carved up the oil-producing country into fiefdoms, each aligned with one of three competing governments. And Tripoli, as expected, has been a major battleground with armed groups fighting for control of neighborhoods, even streets and buildings.

Friday’s violence pitted militias aligned with the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) against Islamist-leaning forces of the self-declared National Salvation government who are trying to reclaim territory lost in recent months, according to security officials.

A spokesman for the National Salvation government said a GNA-aligned militia erected a fake checkpoint to kidnap some of its fighters. “So we decided to attack the GNA boys,” said the spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mahmud Zaghal.

But there has also been speculation for weeks that the National Salvation militias were planning a counterattack. A Facebook page created by its supporters carried a post on Thursday night announcing that it would launch assaults against rivals in southern Tripoli.

The clashes Friday mostly unfolded in the neighborhoods of Abu Salim, Salahedeen and Al Habda. Fighting also erupted in areas near the Rixos Hotel, which has been used by officials and lawmakers aligned with the GNA government.

Last October, their new legislative body was ousted from the buildings by the Salvation militias. In December, the area was the scene of heavy fighting over several days. Militias aligned with the GNA currently are in control of the complex and surrounding neighborhoods.

“We will retake the Rixos,” Zaghal vowed.

At the Al Mokhtar Clinic, the toll of the fighting was obvious. Doctors and nurses were inundated by the wounded. One man arrived with blood splattered on his legs.

“My brother was injured,” another man said as he waited outside. “He was just standing in front of his house when the shells landed.”

But the militia fighters were most visible at the clinic.

“I want to get inside the room,” one fighter screamed, as others held him back from accosting the doctors and nurses.

Other fighters, clad in black and clutching AK-47 rifles, stood outside.

At 1:53 p.m., screams filled the room. Some militia fighters cried, their faces now filled with anguish.

Their comrade had died on the operating table.

An hour later, Aldabaa and Salim were in the cafe. As they have done during previous clashes, they called friends and family around the city to make sure they were safe. They also checked Twitter and Facebook to see which neighborhoods had turned into no-go zones.

Salim had just spoken to a friend who was stuck in his home as fighters pummeled each other outside.

He and Aldabaa had both taken part in the revolution. Salim said he did not regret fighting against the Gaddafi regime, but “regretted the people who came after the revolution.”

Aldabaa blamed the Western countries for helping the rebellion that ousted Gaddafi, and now regrets that the revolution happened at all.

“We were expecting to take the country in a better direction,” he said. “Unfortunately, we left it in a worse condition.”

At 3:15 p.m. near the Rixos Hotel, militia fighters in pickup trucks waited for the next offensive. Graffiti on the wall of the complex read: “Free Libya.”

By 4:30 p.m., drivers were in lines at gas stations around the city, preparing for shortages that usually come after each clash.

By Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post, May 26, 2017

TRIPOLI, Libya--Heavy clashes have erupted between rival militias in the Libyan capital Friday morning in the latest sign of the North African oil-producer’s fragility despite efforts by Western and regional powers to bring stability.

Large explosions and intense gunfire, even artillery rounds, could be heard across the city, emanating from southeast Tripoli, apparently from the vicinity of the Rixos Hotel, a well-known landmark in the capital. Large plumes of black smoke billowed from the area, where clashes between militias have frequently occurred.

The violence, arriving before the start of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan this weekend, began around 8 a.m., and was continuing through the morning.

It’s unclear which forces are battling each other, but the tensions appear to be between militias aligned with the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord or GNA, and those belonging to its rival, the self-declared National Salvation government, according to security sources.

The Rixos Hotel, and surrounding buildings, have been used by officials and lawmakers aligned with the GNA government. Last October, their new legislative body was ousted from the buildings. In December, the area was the scene of heavy fighting between rival armed factions over several days. Militias aligned with the GNA currently are in control of the complex and surrounding neighborhoods.

Instability and violence has plagued Libya since its 2011 revolution that led to the ousting and death of Libyan dictator, Moammar Gaddafi. Since then, competing militias have carved up the country into fiefdoms in a quest for power, authority and control over the nation’s oil and other natural resources.

By Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post, September 15, 2016

MISURATA, Libya--The room where Moammar Gaddafi’s bloodied body once rested is now cluttered with dusty boxes, and the freezer that held his son’s corpse is long gone.

But the Libyan dictator and the forces unleashed by his death five years ago still drive Anwar Sawan’s life.

Hours after Gaddafi and his son were killed in the uprisings that shook the Arab world, Misuratan fighters brought their bodies to this battle-hardened city like trophies.

The corpses spent the first night in Sawan’s family’s house, burnishing his revolutionary credentials. Today his own home, a transformed shipping container, is a support center for the city’s militias and their quest for influence.

Saved inside his canary-yellow phone are hate messages from Gaddafi loyalists who believe that Sawan played a role in the deaths and knows their leader’s secret burial place.

“We’re coming to get you,” reads one.

In a nation where violence is the cadence, Sawan is one of its virtuosos. Involved in nearly every conflict that followed Gaddafi’s death, he has helped fuel his country’s chaotic trajectory--from the rivalries and dysfunction that emerged after four decades of authoritarian rule to the struggle afterward for power, oil and territory.

“I’ve entered every war since 2011 with the same enthusiasm,” declared Sawan, a sharp-nosed, 45-year-old former business executive with a raspy, commanding voice.

For Misurata’s militias, among Libya’s most powerful armed factions, he buys guns and ammunition, most left over from Gaddafi’s stockpiles, bulletproof jackets, food and water--anything that will give them an edge over their tribal, regional and political rivals.

Since May, Sawan has supplied weapons to militias combating the Islamic State’s Libyan affiliate in the coastal city of Sirte, 120 miles east of here. Backed by U.S. airstrikes, the fighters have pushed deep into the center of the militants’ stronghold, delivering a blow to their aspirations of widening their “caliphate” into North Africa.

But in Sawan’s post-Arab Spring world, there are always more battles to fight, more enemies on the horizon.

“We have other Gaddafis in Libya today,” he said.

On a recent night, a white Toyota pickup parked inside Sawan’s compound was filled with metal boxes of bullets and rows of mortar shells stacked like cucumbers in a supermarket.

Earlier in the day, Sawan had driven to the capital, Tripoli, as he often does. With cash collected from sympathetic Misuratan business executives and the militia’s military command, he visited people he described as “war merchants” who trade in the remnants of Gaddafi’s arsenal and the illicit smuggled weaponry that flooded the country after his demise.

On this trip, he said, some people donated boxes of bullets from their personal stockpiles.

“Five times a week a truck like this goes to Sirte,” said Sawan, bearded and dressed in a tan traditional gown and cap.

How long will the ammunition in the truck last?

“Three hours,” he said, half-jokingly. “Our fighters waste a lot of bullets.”

Five years ago, Sawan owned an aluminum smelter and an animal-feed factory. But like many Libyan professionals, he picked up a gun and joined the revolution. Misurata, Libya’s third-largest city, became a major battleground, with intense clashes and daily shelling between the rebels and Gaddafi’s loyalists. Backed by NATO airstrikes, the rebels took the city in May 2011.

On Oct. 20, 2011, Gaddafi and his son Mutassim were killed in Sirte, and Misuratan fighters brought their bodies to a militia barracks here. Outside, crowds demanded to see the corpses. The local military council wanted a doctor to conduct a forensic examination to prove their identity, and Sawan offered his family house.

“People respected my house,” he said. “And nobody would have the courage to enter someone’s house.”

The next day, the bodies were taken to a market area, where they were displayed in an industrial freezer for three days.

Over the next months and years, as Libya atomized into factional violence, Sawan found his true calling. He joined Misurata’s militias as they fought tribes sympathetic to Gaddafi in the city of Bani Walid and rival militias in Tripoli.

“Wherever our fighters are, I go and support them,” said Sawan, who had flown to the southern city of Sabha a day earlier to deliver supplies to other Misuratan factions.

The container where he lives is fitted with cushions, carpets and WiFi. On most nights, it serves as a war room of sorts, where supporters of the militias in Sirte help Sawan procure and dispatch supplies to the front and exchange news of the campaign against the Islamic State.

“I will marry and have children only when Libya becomes stable,” Sawan said.

By Suliman Ali Zway and Declan Walsh, NY Times, Sept. 11, 2016

BERLIN--Fighting erupted in Libya’s oil crescent on Sunday when forces loyal to the dominant militia commander in eastern Libya attacked and seized as many as three major oil terminals, military and civilian officials said.

The sudden offensive from the commander, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, adds a new layer to Libya’s multifaceted civil war, and presents a fresh challenge to the authority of the already weak unity government backed by the United Nations.

General Hifter’s forces attacked the oil ports of Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zueitina early Sunday, said Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesman for General Hifter’s Libyan National Army. Since 2013, the ports have been held by a smaller militia known as the Petroleum Facilities Guard, led by Ibrahim Jathran.

In July, Mr. Jathran signed an agreement with the unity government to resume oil exports from Libya, ending a three-year-old embargo. But on Sunday, his soldiers had been expelled from Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, though there were reports of continuing fighting at Zueitina.

General Hifter’s military gambit puts him on a collision course with the unity government even as international scrutiny of Libya intensifies. The contested oil region lies 50 miles east of Surt, the coastal city where Western-allied militias backed by American airstrikes are laying siege to the main Islamic State base in Libya.

Oil, Libya’s main source of wealth, has always been a central factor in the complex civil conflict that erupted after the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011.

The country’s central bank reserves, drawn from oil income, have rapidly been depleted this year, causing a plunge in the Libyan currency and economic pain. But political and factional rivalries have thwarted efforts to resume oil production.

By Sudarsan Raghavan and James McAuley, Washington Post, July 21, 2016

CAIRO--Libya’s U.N.-backed government on Thursday criticized the presence of French troops operating within rival territory in eastern Libya, declaring it a “violation” of the nation’s sovereignty.

The statement, on the national unity government’s Facebook page, came a day after France announced that three of its soldiers had died in eastern Libya while on a mission.

The revelation was the first official acknowledgement by Paris that its special forces were actively operating in the chaotic and fractured North African nation, which has been divided between two competing adminstrations.

Unrest and lawlessness across Libya also has opened footholds for the Islamic State and other militant factions.

Libya’s president council said it was unaware of the French presence and immediately demanded an explanation from the French government, emphasizing to Paris that it “completely rejected his violation of Libyan soil.”

While it welcomed support from friendly nations to fight the Islamic State in Libya, the government said that it should have been a partner. The United States also has deploy small teams of special forces in Libya, but the units appear to have the backing of the internationally recognized government.

The tensions comes as militias loyal to the government, as well as those belonging to its eastern rivals, have laid siege to the Islamic State’s stronghold in the coastal city of Sirte. In recent days, officials and commanders have predicted the militants could soon be pushed out of the city, although reports suggest that they are putting up a stiff resistance.

On Tuesday, the French Defense Ministry declined to confirm the reported details of the soldiers’ deaths. But President François Hollande, addressing a military training center in southwestern France, specifically mentioned a “helicopter crash.”

There are an estimated 2,000 to 5,000 Islamic State fighters across Libya, which has been gripped by unrest and political upheavals since a Western-aided uprising in 2011 deposed longtime ruler Moammar Gaddafi, who was captured and killed by rebels.

By Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post, April 16, 2016

CAIRO--The rapid deterioration of Libya’s oil-dependent economy is threatening the objectives of the country’s new Western-backed government and budding efforts to confront the Islamic State in North Africa, political and security analysts say.

Within hours of arriving in Tripoli two weeks ago, the government made controlling the nation’s oil a priority. It convinced a powerful militia to hand over three oil terminals, and the national oil company gave its support.

But the road to securing Africa’s largest reserves is riddled with even greater obstacles, and bringing the battered industry back to its full potential promises to be a colossal mission. With global crude prices in a slump, there is a sense of urgency for the unity government to boost oil production and alter Libya’s trajectory.

“Libya is on the verge of economic and financial collapse,” said Claudia Gazzini, senior Libya analyst for the International Crisis Group.

Instability has sharply reduced production levels as armed factions have taken over oil and gas regions. If the government fails to exert control, the contest for energy resources could deepen political fissures and trigger more violence, preventing the unified front that Washington and its allies seek against the Islamic State, analysts say.

Resurrecting Libya’s oil production is crucial to preventing economic ruin, which could force the country to become heavily dependent on Western aid and propel more Libyans to flee to Europe, adding to the refugee crisis there. It’s also vital for the government’s survival.

“As far as the economy is not solved, as far as the economic power has not been shared, you will not be able to find a political solution,” said Merin Abbass, regional director of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a German political foundation working on peace building in Libya. “Who has the access to the oil in Libya, has also the political power.”

The challenges include regional and ethnic power struggles, and independent efforts to sell or smuggle oil. Two other self-declared governments--one in the capital, Tripoli, the other in the eastern city of Tobruk--are also competing for influence. Many militia members, whose loyalties are fickle, still receive government salaries that hinge on oil production. Key oil fields and pipelines are closed due to insecurity, militia rivalries and labor disputes. And after years of civil war, oil infrastructure is in disrepair, analysts say.

Moreover, Islamist militant groups are increasingly targeting the industry in North Africa. They view oil production as a theft of natural resources perpetrated by Western oil companies. Attacking facilities is a high-profile way of undermining national economies and generating propaganda to gain recruits.

Last month, al-Qaeda’s North Africa branch asserted responsibility for a rocket attack on an Algerian gas plant operated by European oil companies, and vowed more assaults on Western oil firms. Last August, the Islamic State affiliate in Egypt kidnapped and beheaded a Croatian employee of a French oil and gas firm.

In Libya, the Islamic State has attacked several petroleum facilities, including storage tanks that were set on fire in January at the Ras Lanuf and As Seder terminals, which are among the country’s largest.

The Libyan economy has long relied almost entirely on oil and gas extraction, which accounts for 95 percent of its export earnings and 99 percent of government income, according to U.N. statistics.

Five years ago, before the violent revolution that ousted dictator Moammar Gaddafi, Libya was producing 1.6 million barrels of oil per day. Although there was significant mismanagement and corruption, the revenue paid the massive government workforce, strengthened Libya’s currency and brought economic growth. Even as the regime committed abuses, it improved housing for average Libyans, provided free public education and medical care, and built good roads.

Today, Libya’s oil production stands at roughly 360,000 barrels per day--a 78 percent drop from five years ago.

The economic impact is palpable. The Central Bank is running a massive deficit, spending six times more than the income from oil sales, depleting the state’s reserves. Shortages of fuel, food and other basic goods have caused prices to rise.