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The Libyan warlord faces an ICC investigation for his alleged role in mass grave burials and resistance from his allies.

Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar has reportedly decentralised his command by delegating powersto his subordinate, Abdulrazek al Nadoori.

This comes after several reports of a rift between Haftar and Libya's Tobruk-based so called House of Representatives (HoR), Aguilah Saleh, emerged in the past few months. Saleh however has denied this, albeit with a measured tone.

Although Saleh has repeatedly said his relationship with Haftar has exceeded any formal positions, he has been candid in confessing that instead of disagreements, he has only ever experienced a difference of views with the warlord, something he has called a "natural and healthy phenomenon" in all countries of the world.

With Haftar now taking a backseat - as per news reports - Nadoori will be heading the Operation Dignity Major Room, or in essence, the central command of Haftar's militias, as well as the military zones currently controlled by the warlords militias, and all security rooms, including a training directorate.

For regional experts, Haftar's decision to transfer powers to al Nadoori was done with the intention of avoiding potential consequences from his previous failures: overseeing burials of civilians in mass graves and war crimes committed by his mobs during an offensive against the UN-backed government of GNA.

Other experts say Aguila Salehs recent moves, coupled with the International Criminal Court's investigation of mass graves in Tarhuna, gave an irreversible battering to Haftar's reputation and paved the way for this new ascent to power.

Egypt is also apparently losing its confidencein Haftar, with reports emerging from Cairo that suggest the Egyptian regime is exploring alternatives to the warlord, especially after he faced back-to-back defeats at the hands of the UN-backed government.

According to Karim Mezran, a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, Aguila Saleh wields a strong influence in eastern Libya. He is not only the speaker of a pro-Haftar parliament, but also a crucial political figure belonging to the al Ubadiat tribe in Tobruk.

In addition to this, Saleh comes from a tribe that has historically run security institutions in Tobruk.

In late June, Saleh urged Egypts Sisi to intervene militarily in support of Haftar should the Libya's forces attack the strategic city of Sirte. As a jurist and politician, Salehs demand struck many as odd.

Time and again, Saleh has proved himself a cunning politician, ready to betray even his own allies. In May last year, he met with top leaders of Haftars militias without including the warlord in the meeting. Haftar's absence stood out because he had had several disagreements with Saleh around that time. The biggest disagreement they had was over Haftar appointing himself as the sole leader of Libya, a claim HoRs vehemently rejected. The other point of confrontation between them was Haftar violating the UN-brokered 2015 political agreement.

Since then, several reports have emerged that Aguila Saleh, who prefers to be called as Supreme Commander of Armed Forces, desired to appoint Nadori as Haftar's successor.

Libyan analyst, Mohamed Buisier, recently told the Anadolu Agency that Haftar will be defeated by the end of this year as several countries, including the US, have realised that he is a war criminal, especially after his militias attacked civilians and diplomatic missions.

Given these facts, Haftars decision might be read from different perspectives.

A first scenario suggests that after considering the internal and external dynamics, Egypt could well support Aguila Saleh as Cairos new political partner and hence impose Abdulrazek al Nadoori as its new militia leader.

In addition, in the eyes of Egypt, Saleh is a bit due to both his political identity and tribal power. Sisis latest attempt to arm tribes against the UN-backed government in Libya might be seen as a part of this thought despite its early failure. In response, Haftar might want to empower Nadoori to weaken Saleh's authority. It was Saleh who first appointed Nadoori as the self-styled Libyan National Armys chief of staff in 2016.

The second scenario would be based on Haftar trying to gain the support of Saleh's militia leaders and linking them to the crimes committed by his forces. With Saleh's militias on his side, he can easily blame them for war crimes committed under his watch.

Source: TRT World

More here:
Analysis: The politics behind Haftar's devolution of power in Libya - TRT World

Bobby Ghosh is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He writes on foreign affairs, with a special focus on the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.

The Trump administrations desultory Libya policy has left the U.S. helpless as its friends fight each other, its enemies grab strategic resources and American credibility sinks into the Saharan quicksand.

The Libyan civil war is now at a dangerous inflection point: Government and rebel forces are facing off over the port city of Sirte, hometown of the former dictator Muammar Qaddafi and gateway to a coastal stretch of oil export terminals known as the oil crescent. But thanks to President Trumps equivocal positions over the conflict, the U.S. finds itself with little leverage over either side.

The latest demonstration of the perils of American ambivalence is the seizure of vital oil facilities in the North African country by Russian mercenaries, undeterred by U.S. warnings to steer clear. The Trump administrations feeble response has been to sanction the Russian businessman who employs the mercenaries. This is no more likely to deter Moscow than the U.S. Africa Command publishing satellite images of Russian military jets in the Jufra airbase in May: Despite being called out, Moscow didnt withdraw the planes.

In recent weeks, Trump has himself attempted to intervene in the Libyan civil war, by calling the principal foreign patrons of the two sides, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who supports the government, and Egypts General Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who supports the rebels, and urging them to support a negotiated settlement. Neither has since shown the slightest intention of reining in their favored belligerents. If anything, Egypt has ratcheted up tensions, with its parliament last week approving a direct military intervention in Libya.

Trumps late, limp effort to broker a truce in Libya is doomed to go the way of his administrations other attempts at peacemaking in the Arab world from the disastrous deal of the century for the Israelis and Palestinians, to failed mediation between Egypt and Ethiopia over a giant dam on the Blue Nile, to its inability to end the feud between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

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In Libya, the failure is a direct consequence of Trumps refusingto pick a side. Although the U.S. formally recognizes the Government of National Accord in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, it has at various times viewed the rebel Libyan National Army as an ally in the fight against Islamist extremism never mind that the rebels count Islamist extremists among their fastest friends. Trump, with his characteristic fondness for authoritarians, has praised the rebel commander Khalifa Haftar.

Trumps vacillation can be explained at least in part by the support that both Sarraj and Haftar receive fromAmerican allies; more to the point, both are championed by tough guys the president greatly admires.

On Sarrajs side is Turkeys Erdogan, the world leader whose frequent calls to the White House are instantly put through to Trump. Theres also Qatar, which hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East.

The rebels are backed principally by Egypts Sisi, Trumps favorite dictator,and the United Arab Emirates, whose de facto leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed,the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, enjoys enormous clout in Washington. And then, of course,they have the support ofthe toughest of tough guys: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who meddles in Libya principally through the mercenary forces of the Wagner Group.(Haftar also has Emmanuel Macronin his camp, although Trump has long sincelost his fondness for Francespresident.)

Unable to choose one side and incapable of mediating between them, Trump can only threaten economic punishment. But sanctions have limited effect in a civil war, especially when the prize control of enormous oil wealth is so valuable. As a result, in Libya as in much of the Arab world, the U.S. is doomed to be a mere spectator.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:Bobby Ghosh at aghosh73@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:Nicole Torres at ntorres51@bloomberg.net

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Bobby Ghosh is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He writes on foreign affairs, with a special focus on the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.

Read more:
Trumps Waffling on Libya Puts the U.S. in a Bind - Bloomberg

For days, rumours have been circulatingthat Yemeni mercenaries have left their own conflict for the one in Libya, joining an ever-growing international presence in the war-tornNorth African country.

Whether the rumours are true or notis difficult to establish, though four months ago one Yemeni militia, the Popular Resistance, began a recruitment drive, promising Yemenis military training but not disclosing the front they would be sent to.

Either way, for struggling Yemeni mercenaries looking to earn a decent wage amid war, economic collapse and the coronavirus pandemic, the location of the fight is neither here nor there.

New Popular Resistance recruits tell Middle East Eye they're happy to fight in someone elses war - for the right price.

The Popular Resistance is a militia linked to Yemen's Islah party, a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate that has good relations with both Saudi Arabia and its regional rival Turkey.

Part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi movement, the party and the militia have enemies within the alliance battling on behalf of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi's government - particularly groups allied with the United Arab Emirates, which is a major backer of eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar.

Recent reports by anti-Islah media in Yemen have accused the party of sending Yemenis to Turkey under the guise of receiving medical treatment, then transporting them to Libya. Turkey has sent arms, drones, advisers and Syrian mercenaries to Libya in support of Haftar's enemy, the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).

Criminals-turned-Saudi mercenaries terrorise Yemen's Taiz province

Some news websites saidmilitary and intelligence sources have revealed that 200 mercenaries from Yemen have arrived in Libya to fight on behalf of the Tripoli-based GNA.

Other news reports said three Yemenis fighters were caught by Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), and named the detainees.

Islah has a good relationship with Turkey, where many of its leaders are currently based after fleeing Yemen via Saudi Arabia in 2015. Pro-Islah TV channels are also based in Turkey.

Neither Islah nor Hadi's government have commented on the news about Yemeni mercenaries in Libya, and there has been no official confirmation that the party has sent fighters from Taiz and Marib provinces to Turkey.

Hundreds of wounded pro-Islah fighters have travelled in the last four years to receive medical treatment in Turkey. Media reports have alleged that some have claimed to be wounded, but were in fact mercenaries on their way to Libya.

The founder of the Popular Resistance in Taiz, Sheikh Hamoud al-Mikhlafi, an Islahi, left Yemen in 2016 and has been based in Turkey since.

His commanders on the ground in Taiz have in recent weeks been recruiting fighters left, right and centre, promising wealth but not revealing their destination. Schools across the southwestern province have been left empty by the coronavirus pandemic, and the Popular Resistance has commandeered them, turning them into training camps for new recruits.

The teen warlord who runs Yemen's second city with fear

Yemeni mercenaries have long fought the Houthis on the border with Saudi Arabia, but though the money was good many have abandoned the fight and returned home disillusioned by the fierce battles and dirty politics.

Prior to his latest recruitment efforts, Mikhlafi called on returnees from the battles on the Saudi border to join his camps in the outskirts of Taiz and thousands signed up. Others struggling to get by away from the fighting have also been tempted.

My shop went bankrupt and I dont have any other source of income, so joining the fighting is the only choice for me, said Walid, 38, an owner of a mobile accessories shop in Taiz city.

Many of my friends joined the battles with Saudi Arabia but I didnt like that because Saudi Arabia has been destroying Yemen.

Walid told Middle East Eye he trusts Mikhlafi "as he himself was a fighter and works for the interest of Taizs residents".

I closed my shop and joined the training for one month.

Desperate for income, Walid said he is willing to fight anywhere with the Popular Resistance for money.

The fighters on the internal fronts receive only 57,000 Yemeni rials ($76) per month, so I would not be happy to join them, he said.

There is information that some of us will go to fight in Libya, and thats the best choice for me.

Walid said news they will be sent to Libya is being spread among the recruits, and they had been promised $2,500 per month once in North Africa.

'There is information that some of us will go to fight in Libya and thats the best choice for me'-Walid, Popular Resistance recruit

Almost all recruits in the school hope to travel to Libya but it seems that we wont be as we have been waiting for around four months, he added.

Were back home now and receive a salary, but we dont know where we are going to fight.

Walid said none of his fellow fighters have travelled to Turkey, and he hasnt heard of anyone who hadalready participated in the fighting in Libya.

Even wounded fighters couldnt travel to Turkey in the past four months because of the coronavirus restrictions, he said.

I hope we can leave this country and earn some money that would help us to save our future.

Meanwhile, there have been reports about a supposed covert Turkish presence in Yemen, with activities concentrated in Shabwa, Taiz and Socotra. Some Islahmembers have also called on Turkey to intervene to rid Yemen of the Saudi-led coalition.

Anees Mansour, former media adviser to the Yemeni embassy in Riyadh, has appeared in more than one video urging Turkey to intervene in Yemen.

Yemen needs a Turkish intervention, Mansour said in one of the videos, accusing the Saudi-led coalition of destroying his country.

Mansour also praised the Turkish-backed forces in Libya, who succeeded in pushing back Haftars yearlong offensive on Tripoli, saying that the entire Arab world washappy for their victory.

Libya conflict: Turkey is looking for a 'third way' in Sirte

Like many other Islahleaders based in Turkey,Mansour supported the coalition when it intervened inYemen in 2015 and fled to Saudi Arabia at the time. But today they are calling for a new intervention.

Abdulghani, a member of the Islah party based in Marib, said that while he was proud of Turkey and its achievements in Libya, he wasagainst its involvement in Yemen.

All Muslims should be proud of Turkey and [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan as he represents Islam in its best form, but we dont need any more interventions in Yemen, Abdulghani told MEE.

We are suffering from Saudi, Emirati and Iranian interventions in Yemen, so we need to liberate it from all countries.

He stressed that Mansour and other Islah members were only voicing their own opinions and thatthey didn'trepresent the party.

Abdulghani has also heard news about Yemeni fighters in Libya, buthe didnot believe it, saying that it waspropaganda against Islah.

It is true that some wounded fighters left Yemen to receive medical treatment in Turkey, but I dont believe they joined the fighting in Libya, he said.

Yemen has enough fronts and Islah is not stupid enough to send fighters to Libya, seeing that this would create anger in Yemen against the party.

The severe economic fallout of the war, including high unemployment, has forced people to join the battles on a multitude of front lines, as it is the only available source of income for many.

'The majority of fighters dont care about who controls Yemen and they only fight to earn money to provide for their families'-Nehad Abdul-Jabbar, social expert

[Becoming a] mercenary is a good choice for Yemenis, and it is a main source of income for many, so we see some fighting with Saudi Arabia, others with the United Arab Emirates, and we may see them fighting with any other country, Nehad Abdul-Jabbar, a social expert, told MEE.

Abdul-Jabbar believes that the deterioration of the situation in Yemen has led needy people to join the fighting for the sake of money.

The majority of fighters dont care about who controls Yemen and they only fight to earn money to provide for their families, she added.

For these people, they can stop fighting as soon as they get a job.

An estimated 80 percent of the population - 24 million people - require some form of humanitarian aid, including 14.3 million who are in acute need, according to UNOCHA.

Unfortunately, money has become the fuel of the war, so this conflict will continue until the economic situation of Yemenis is better, Abdul-Jabbarsaid.

Read more from the original source:
As rumours swirl of Yemenis fighting in Libya, mercenaries enlist to join the war - Middle East Eye

Take the ferry from Hyres, on the French Riviera, to Porquerolles island, walk past the beach where Jean-Luc Godard shot the film Pierrot le Fou, wander through the government-protected, sculpture-dotted pine forest, remove your shoes and then descend to a subterranean gallery illuminated by sunbeams shimmering through a transparent swimming pool.

Here, in Fondation Carmignacs newly opened private museum, you will find a portrait of Rita. Rita was 17 when the photojournalist Lizzie Sadin photographed her. A year before, she was living with her family near the foothills of the Himalayas. A friend told her of a life of opportunity lying in wait in India, just a few hundred miles away. After crossing the border from Nepal, Rita was captured, imprisoned and forced into a life of sex work for visiting tourists. Ritas eyes blaze into the airy calm of Porquerolles island.

In 2017, Sadin, a former social worker in Pariss priphrique, was the Carmignac photojournalism awards eighth winning laureate. On the basis of a two-page pitch, she received a 50,000 (45,000) grant. She used the money to embed herself, with her camera hidden beneath her coat, in the shady dance bars of the Nepalese borderlands, capturing stories of modern-day slavery.

Sadin is one of 10 photojournalists to receive such backing over the course of the last decade. To mark this milestone, Fondation Carmignac is exhibiting each laureates work in a retrospective titled 10 Years of Reportage, on show until 1 November 2020.

With Ritas eyes at its centre, the show is curated to urgently explore some of the biggest existential questions we face the hidden truths of modern slavery, the cost of endless conflict, the consequences of habitat loss and the quest of freedom for those living under authoritarianism.

Libya: A Human Marketplace Narciso Contreras, 2016

I came to Libya to document the humanitarian crisis of migrants trying to reach Europe through Libyan territory, says Narciso Contreras. But, actually, what I found is a market.

From February to June 2016, the Mexican photographer travelled through Libya after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

He captured how Libya has become a human marketplace in which destitute migrants are bought and sold as they attempt to make their way to Europe.

Contreras uses the exhibition to show the first images taken on his iPhone of a transaction taking place between traffickers, which helped NGO groups affiliated with Carmignac prove modern slavery was taking place in Libya.

Contreras concluded that, far from trying to resolve the situation, Libyan authorities were running, and profiting from, the trafficking of people.

Arctic: New Frontier Yuri Kozyrev and Kadir van Lohuizen, 2018

If youre planning to visit the north pole, it might be a good idea to get a move on. On the basis of all authoritative forecasts, the ice of the Arctic will be gone by 2030, to be replaced by a water world created by anthropogenic global warming.

Never before have two photojournalists simultaneously covered the irreversible changes that are taking place in the Arctic. That is until Yuri Kozyrev and Kadir van Lohuizen, working in coordination, created Arctic: New Frontier in 2018.

Kozyrev followed the routes of the Russian Arctic ports, from the city of Murmansk to the Taymyr peninsula and the islands of the Russian Arctic. Van Lohuizen, meanwhile, started in the Svalbard Archipelago and followed the northern Arctic route through Greenland, Canada and the northern tip of Alaska. Each captured the expansion of the regions ports, industrial forces and military sites a process that will change the map of the world forever, Kozyrev says.

Mbare, Harare, Zimbabwe, 2011. A poster celebrating the 88th birthday of Robert Mugabe in the most populated and unstable suburb of the country, synonymous with disease, fear, crime and political violence.

Zimbabwe, Your Wounds Will Be Named Silence Robin Hammond, 2012

The New Zealand-born photographer Robin Hammond calls Robert Mugabes Zimbabwe a garden of Eden that became a hell to many of its inhabitants. In the processing of taking portraits of Zimbabwes pro-democracy activists, Hammond was imprisoned twice. They wanted to show me the terrible living conditions they have to endure, he says. But some were afraid for me, and warned me of the danger.

His portraits include the face of the activist Masvingo, staring out from a pool of darkness. Hammond hides his body, severely burnt after soldiers threw a can of lit petrol into a campaign office for Zimbabwes Movement for Democratic Change.

Iran: Blank Pages of an Iranian Photo Album Newsha Tavakolian, 2014

In 2015, Tavakolian became the first female photographer from the Middle East to join Magnum, the photography collective. The year before, she was the Carmignac laureate for a body of work that explored, via moving and still image, the personal stories of her own generation the Iranian millennials who have grown up in Tehran after the 1979 revolution and the countrys bloody war with Iraq.

As a self-taught photographer, and when still a teenager, she took to the streets to photograph the 1999 student uprising in Iran, spending a week scaling trees with a zoom lens while militia marched through the streets.

Her series here captures nine men and women, shot in and around Tehran, as they communicate the tension of being marginalised by those speaking in their name, Tavakolian says. In Iran, they try to fit into a landscape they regard as not being their own. They, like many of the others they represent, adapt.

Gaza Beach, 2009. A destroyed container, probably used as a Palestinian police station. Ka Wiedenhofer for Fondation Carmignac.

Seen together, the Carmignac Foundations retrospective is a stark reminder, in the midst of the bucolic beauty of the French Riviera, of the first worlds increasing responsibility to the poverty, oppression and vulnerability that is the daily reality for most people in this world.

Carmignac Photojournalism Award: 10 Years of Reportage is on show until 1 November 2020 at Villa Carmignac, Porquerolles

Go here to read the rest:
Ten years of photo reportage from Libyan traffickers to Mugabe's Zimbabwe - The Guardian

Three people were shot dead and two were severely injured at the disembarkation site in Khoms on Tuesday night, 28 July, after being returned to Libya, the country they were trying to flee. The victims are aged between 15 and 18. This is yet another tragic development showing that migrants in Libya face life-threatening violence and brutality. Vulnerable people should benefit from protection and evacuation out of the country, instead of suffering forced returns and arbitrary detention.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting which took place at a disembarkation site in Khoms on Tuesday 28 July, Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) organised the referral of the two injured survivors to a nearby hospital and supported their care. Both were injured by gunshot and are still deeply shocked by the event. One of the two survivors is a relative of one of the three victims, who was shot dead in front of him.

First-hand testimonies gathered by MSF indicate that the three victims and the two injured were part of a group of 73 people intercepted at sea by Libyan coast guards and brought back to Khoms. Among them some dozens of people, all Sudanese nationals, tried to flee the disembarkation site, to avoid being brought into detention, and were shot at.

While some managed to escape, 26 people were finally taken to a detention centre. MSF teams, who provide assistance to vulnerable migrants in detention centres, visited them, and found many who were still in shock and were distressed.

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People shot and killed in Libya while trying to flee arbitrary detention | MSF - Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) International