Archive for the ‘Libya’ Category

African migrants sold in Libya ‘slave markets’, IOM says – BBC News


BBC News
African migrants sold in Libya 'slave markets', IOM says
BBC News
Africans trying to reach Europe are being sold by their captors in "slave markets" in Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says. Victims told IOM that after being detained by people smugglers or militia groups, they were taken to ...
Migrants in Libya are being rounded up and sold into slavery, UN saysCBC.ca
Migrants from west Africa being 'sold in Libyan slave markets'The Guardian
UN warns migrants are being murdered and raped in LibyaDaily Mail
euronews -Citizen -UPI.com -International Organization for Migration
all 88 news articles »

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African migrants sold in Libya 'slave markets', IOM says - BBC News

Libya’s Oil Surge Lasts Just One Week – The American Interest

Well that didnt last long.Last week we noted that Libyan oil production jumped 160,000 barrels per day after its biggest oil field reopened. That resurgence was short-lived after that field was shut down again this week, and Libyas oil output fell 30 percent to a six month low. Bloomberg reports:

The North African nations output dropped to 490,000 barrels a day from 703,000 a day after the Sharara field shut, a person familiar with the situation said, asking not to be identified because of a lack of authorization to speak to media. Sharara pumped about 213,000 barrels a day before halting on April 9, the person said. The country is currently producing at its lowest level in more than six months, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The pipeline that transports crude from Sharara in western Libya to the Zawiya refinery also stopped operating on April 9. The National Oil Corp. declared force majeure the same day on loadings of Sharara crude from the Zawiya terminal, according to a copy of the NOCs decree obtained by Bloomberg.

Moscowwont be happy at this latest delay, as the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft has recently gotten into business with Libyas National Oil Corp. (NOC). The fact that NOC is still having this much trouble getting production up and running again will be concerning to the Kremlin, which has been making significant energy investments around the world in recent months.

OPECs other members, however, wont mind seeing Libya continue to struggle to regain its 1.6 million barrel per day production capacity (last seen in 2011, before the NATOintervention and toppling of the Qaddafi regime). After all, the name of the game for petrostates these days is reducing output in order to erase a global glut and hopefully nudge prices upward.

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Libya's Oil Surge Lasts Just One Week - The American Interest

Report: Russia May Capitalize on Chaos in Libya by Filling Power Vacuum – Breitbart News

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The report echoed recent assessments by U.S. military officials, noting thatMoscow is trying to reestablish Russia as a superpower and extend its geopolitical sphere of influence by undermining the U.S. and other Western powers and capitalizing on the chaos in Libya.

Even though there would be risks, Russia stands a lot to gain, Christopher Chivvis, a security analyst with the Rand Corp, told Stars and Stripes. (Moscow) would be free to shape the battlefield, much like it did in Syria with its support of Assad. Similar conditions exist in Libya.

Putins relationship with a powerful Libyan warlord has been thriving, a development that the news outlet describes as a sign that the Russian leader sees an opportunity in Libyas chaos to sideline the West and catapult Moscow into the position of power broker on NATOs southern flank.

Stars and Stripesacknowledges that Russias intentions regarding its affiliation with Gen. Khalifa Haftar remain unclear.

Haftar, a secular strongman who controls much of eastern Libya, belongs to the opposition of the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.

High-ranking officials from both sides, including the GNAs Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, have visited Russia in recent weeks.

In mid-March, U.S. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the top American commander in Africa, described Russias involvement in war-ravaged Libya as very concerning, noting that security in the war-devastated nation remains very fractured.

Russia is trying to exert influence on the ultimate decision of who becomes, and what entity becomes, in charge of the government inside Libya, Gen. Waldhauser told lawmakers. Theyre working to influence that decision.

Russia has already deployed a small contingent of special operations forces to Egypts border with Libya.

Citing the analyst Chivvis, Stars and Stripes notes, Should Russia align with Haftar to launch a formal intervention, it could give Moscow a foothold for setting up sophisticated air defense systems that could challenge allied access to the region in a crisis.

Since NATOs 2011 intervention in Libya, which resulted in the toppling of Gadhafi, the country has disintegrated into a virtual failed state with a mix of militias, a weak government and terrorist groups such as the Islamic State [ISIS/ISIL] competing for territory, it adds. Even though Libya is located on the doorstep of southern Europe, NATO has shied away from sending ground troops to help restore order.

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Report: Russia May Capitalize on Chaos in Libya by Filling Power Vacuum - Breitbart News

So You Want to Partition Libya – POLITICO Magazine – POLITICO Magazine

Dear Dr. Gorka,

So I hear youre interested in being Donald Trumps envoy to Libya. You even sketched a plan on a napkin to partition the country. The plan would divide Libya into three provinces that date back to the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, and thereby solve Libyas current crisis. If it were only that simple.

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But its not. Libyas ongoing conflict is complicated. It has to do with the legacy of four decades of brutal dictatorial rule under Muammar Qadhafi that obliterated any semblance of functional governmental institutions and pitted Libyan against Libyan. It has to do with lack of rule of law and poor governance that has allowed the democratic process initiated after the 2011 revolution to be perverted and then aborted. And it has to do with regional proxy powers intervening both openly and clandestinely in Libya to make sure that they have an oil-rich ally on the Mediterranean when the dust settles.

The current mess in Libya is layers upon layers, with multiple bodies in different cities claiming to be the countrys true government. And then there are the fence-sittersnot yet with this side or that but waiting to see where the chips fall. And all of these groups are armed. Were not talking about just small arms, but armor, artillery and air power. Also, lets not forget the Islamic State, which was only recently ousted from its stronghold in Sirte. Many of those fighters who fled likely linked up with clandestine cells throughout the country. But lets put all this aside for the moment and focus on why your plan is a clunker.

For starters, your plan is predicated on the notion that the Ottoman division of Libya into three provinces (Tripolitania in the west, Cyrenaica in the east, and the Fezzan in the south) worked.

Well, lets review a little history. (Yes, I too have a Ph.D.) The Ottomans first conquered and created Cyrenaica, todays eastern Libya, in 1517. It took them another 34 years to conquer Tripolitania, the region closer to Tunisia. The Ottomans only conquered and created the Fezzan, Libyas vast and mostly empty desert south, 300 years later. And this glosses over the fact that Istanbul lost control of Tripolitania for more than a century in the intervening years. These were not happy, seamless times.

But how did these Ottoman provinces function? For starters, the borders between the regions were primarily for the purposes of tax collection to be paid to Istanbul, not for the full remit of governance that we would require today. People moved back and forth and families and interests spanned different regions. Law enforcement, such as it was, devolved to the local level.

But all this was before oilwhich wasnt discovered in Libya until 1957. Had oil been discovered in Libya during the Ottoman era, would Istanbul have divided it the way it did? Wouldnt we then be sketching different borders on different napkins?

But for the sake of argument, lets say we do divide Libya according to 600-year-old borders (regardless of whether this is what Libyans want or not). Oil is Libyas lifeblood. It pays for everything from food to water to public-sector salaries. Without oil revenue there is no Libya.

The problem is, borders on the ground dont always neatly line up with the oil reserves in it. In Libyas case, most of the oil is in the east, in what would be Cyrenaica. The Fezzan would have some too. There is considerably less in what would be Tripolitania, the region that contains the capital, Tripoli.

Recreating Ottoman divisions then would ultimately cut a future Tripolitanias revenue by more than two thirds. Making matters worse, the oil fields that Tripolitania would lose would be just across the border in neighboring Cyrenaicaso close that Tripolitania would be forgiven were it to be tempted to fight for them. And while the Fezzan would end up with some oil, it has no access to ports and would have to pay Tripolitania transit tariffs to get its oil to market. Given how much revenue it would have lost, you can bet Tripolitania will extract a pretty penny. Plus, the Fezzan would end up a landlocked country. The United Nations and the World Bank have ample statistics demonstrating how fragile landlocked countries are.

But the Libyan conflict is already about oil and about controlling the revenue that oil generates. This became abundantly clear last month when militias allied with the Government of National Accord in Tripoli seized four oil export terminals that had earlier been captured by the military allied with the eastern government in Tobruk, which in turn had captured from a separatist cum gangster. (Are you following along, Dr. Gorka?) Even though the Tobruk government had continued to allow oil revenue from the ports under its control to keep going to the government in Tripoli after it captured them in September 2016, some political leaders in Tripoli were uneasy with that gentlemens agreement and felt they needed to take the oil terminals back, not only to undermine their opponents in the east, but also to guarantee oil revenue for themselves in the future. They managed to do so briefly in March, but the Tripoli government was able to hold the terminals for only a few days before the government in Tobruk took them back. Now that it has taken them back, the Tobruk government is exploring ways of selling oil on its own.

Meanwhile, the government in Tripoli is trying to figure out how to exert more control over oil revenue, likely to deprive that revenue of going to the government in Tobruk. Further south, other groups are also leveraging oil, periodically shutting down a pipeline leading from two large southwestern fields to deprive the government in Tripoli of revenue and force it to bow to their demands.

Libyas current conflict, though, is also about more than oil. It is about former Qadhafi regime members trying to reclaim what they lost in the 2011 revolution. It is about Islamistsno, not radical Islamic terroriststrying to preserve the political gains they made during Libyas brief democratic interlude in the aftermath of the revolution that ousted Qadhafi. It is about former political dissidentssome who were imprisoned, others who were exiled, trying to gain some political power for the first time in a country they call their own. And into this mix add jihadi terrorists organizations like the Islamic State; the remnants of Benghazi consulate attackers Ansar al-Sharia; and some components of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a regional terrorist group with a large presence in the south. None of these groups fits neatly into Ottoman-era borders. Which new country would you give to the Islamists? Which one would the former Qadhafi henchmen get? Who ends up with the bulk of the terrorists?

Despite all of this, perhaps you still think creating three new countries is a good idea. But you dont have to look very far to find instances where this approach has been a disaster. This is especially the case when oil is involved. Case in point: South Sudan, which not only fought a calamitous 20-year war for independence from Sudan that reignited over oil less than a year after winning independence, but is now engulfed in a civil war of its own and failing. Do we really want to be flirting with the prospect of more failed states in the Sahara? After all, failed states are hothouses for jihadi salafis who are already abundant in Libya and the Sahara. We should be working to limit their areas of operations, not creating new ones for them.

Finallyand this is a big onedespite having two governments and being on the cusp of civil war, most Libyans still think of themselves as Libyan. They dont think of themselves as Tripolitanian or Cyrenaican or Fezzani. The solution for Libyas crisis is to foster this sense of Libyaness as a way of countering the zero-sum mentality that is driving the current crisis. The National Oil Corp. recognizes this. It has consistently maintained in the face of all sorts of confrontations that Libyas oil is for Libyans, east and west, north and south. The challenge now is to spread the Libya for Libyans mentality to other governmental institutions. Admittedly, a plan for doing this doesnt fit on a napkin, but neither would any plans for dealing with the mess created by divvying up Libya into borders from a bygone era.

Respectfully,

Geoff D. Porter

Geoff D. Porter is president of North Africa Risk Consulting.

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So You Want to Partition Libya - POLITICO Magazine - POLITICO Magazine

News Roundup – Wed, Apr 12, 2017 – The Libya Observer

Central Bank of Libya said it had taken the necessary measures in coordination with all banks to import food goods worth 550 million dollars via bills for collection before the coming for Ramadan (In 20 days). It added the relevant authorities will be responsible for making sure the citizens buy the foods with the real prices.

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GECOL said the shutdown of gas pipeline that feeds Ruwais power plant has caused it to close entirely losing 700 megawatts from the general electricity network, According to the media office, load shedding policy will be adopted by the GECOL manually to maintain the stability of the network.

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UN-proposed government's Interior Minister Aref Al-Khouja met with Egyptian counterpart Majdi Abdelghafar in Cairo, according to the Egyptian Interior Ministry. They both discussed the current security crisis and collaboration on all levels between the two governments.

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The Head of the High Council of State, Abndelrahman Al-Sweihli, condemned the attack on the house of the CBL's Governor, Al-Sidiq Al-Kabeer, saying the right to protest doesn't mean violating the laws and terrifying people.

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Gunmen kidnapped Tuesday the Civil Registry's Director in Tripoli Khalid Al-Bayad as he was on his way to Tajoura, eastern Tripoli. The media office of the Civil Registry accused one of Tripoli brigades of the abduction saying they forced him into handing over the civil registry electronic system and database.

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Libyan Volleyball Federation decided to qualify Al-Sweihli team for the finals of Libya Cup after riots between the spectators in the game against Al-Itihad Misrati (3-0). Al-Sweihli will go with Al-Ahli Benghazi to the finals awaiting the decisive match for the western group between Asariya and Al-Jazeera. The federation's contests committee set the finals' date on 7-8-9 May.

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The Head of Public Relations Office in Al-Bayda security department said a committee was formed to follow the details of the latest suicide cases and said that the security personnel talked with the social affairs offices to send specialists and counselors to talk to the two survivors. He added that the security department kicked off Monday a large-scale campaign targeting witches and sorcerers' dins in the city and its suburbs. Six people were reported in suicide cases, while two survived lately in Al-Bayda.

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Illegal Immigration Fight Authority said it had opened a new migrants center in Tajoura. The anti-terrorism department hailed this new action and all those involved in making it happen.

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News Roundup - Wed, Apr 12, 2017 - The Libya Observer