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Local authorities in Libya's capital city Tripoli and elsewhere are mounting resistance to EU plans to stem migration flows towards Italy.

The move is likely to further complicate efforts after the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced a 200 million plan to finance migration projects geared towards Libya throughout much of north Africa.

A large bulk of the money is likely to be shuffled into border control and surveillance in the hope of containing people likely to attempt the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing in the upcoming months.

But Mostafa Al-Barooni, the mayor of one of the largest cities in the country, told this website on Wednesday (8 February) that Mogherini's proposals were unacceptable.

"It is not acceptable and it is not logical that we should solve the problem of Europe by keeping the migrants and refugees in Libya," he said.

Al-Barooni presides over Zintan, a city in the north-west of country, which is home to some 20,000 migrants.

His views were echoed by Ibrahim Aribi, a city councillor from Tripoli, the seat of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord, the GNA.

"It is the European Union that is responsible for the illegal migrants," Aribi told EUobserver.

"We don't agree with these plans," he said.

Aribi said the EU's migration proposals risked creating "huge problems for Libya."

"If all these refugees cannot go further and stay in Libya, it will worsen the situation, he said.

The two said EU assistance for Libya should instead aim to create jobs and tackle day-to-day issues such as waste management.

EU leaders, earlier this month in Malta, said they would "stem illegal flows into the EU" and "combat transit and smuggling activities, but made no mention of helping people to find legal ways to seek asylum in Europe.

It means that people hoping to reach the EU will continue to rely on smugglers.

The EU is keen to cooperate with Libyan municipal authorities, which are viewed as being vital to implementing its new African projects, but with local authorities opposing the plans to keep migrants at bay, it is unclear how the European initiatives can proceed.

Al-Barooni and Aribs comments come ahead of a ceremony in Malta where Mogherini is handing over graduation certificates to 89 trainees in the Libyan coast guard and navy.

The trainees are among the first batch in an EU plan to get the Libyans to pluck migrants from within their own territorial waters and return them to Libya.

But once returned, they are likely to end up in detention facilities that were recently described as death-traps by the German government.

Officially, Libya has 34 detention centres but sources on the ground say the real number is between 20 and 27.

"If there is a conflict, migrants are moved to another centre, so it depends," said International Organisation of Migration (IOM) chief of mission to Libya, Othman Belbeisi.

Another part of the EU plan to keep migrants in place is to enlist international aid organisations like the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and IOM for help.

But the UNHCR has no international staff in Libya.

The agency has people working in Somalia and Afghanistan but refuses to send anyone to Libya for extended stays because it is too dangerous.

It instead relies on local hires to carry out services.

The IOM has 81 staff present in Libya and 115 dedicated mission staff but faces similar restrictions.

The IOM's Libya's mission chief Belbeisi, for instance, is based in Tunisia.

"Even for me, I cannot go to Libya and stay for a number of days," he said.

Belbeisi said they are able to work around the problems with different contractual agreements for staffing inside the country.

"We are taking some risks trying to have people on the ground under different contractual modalities," he said.

The IOM works primarily with the Libyan coast guard and a so-called directorate for combating illegal migration.

The organisation wants to set up reception facilities for people rescued at sea where they can receive a meal and quick shower before being released a few hours later.

Belbeisi said that those rescued are often sent immediately to the detention centres.

"This is something that we advocate that authorities should stop but it continues to happen," he said.

See the original post:
Libyan authorities oppose EU migrant plans - EUobserver

Khartoum - Sudanese security agents on Monday brought home a four-month-old baby girl whose parents were killed in Libya while fighting for the jihadist Islamic State group, a security official said.

The infant, born to Sudanese parents, was brought to Khartoum after the Libyan Red Crescent alerted Sudan's powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).

"The mother and father of the baby were IS fighters who were killed in Sirte during the fighting to liberate" the city from the group, the Sudanese Media Centre (SMC) reported Brigadier Tijani Ibrahim of NISS as saying.

The baby's mother had travelled to Libya in August 2015 along with four other Sudanese girls, the media outlet close to NISS reported Ibrahim as saying.

"There they joined IS and also married Sudanese men who were members of ISIS," he said.

The baby's grandfather said the child was brought to Sudan from the Libyan city of Misrata.

Libyan authorities who found the baby handed her over to the Libyan Red Crescent, who then contacted NISS to return the infant to Sudan, the SMC report said.

Last major bastion

"I had heard that my daughter had left behind a baby she had from a Sudanese member of ISIS," Alithi Yousef told SMC.

"After what was a complicated operation conducted in co-ordination with NISS and Libyan officials, we were able to bring back the baby," he said.

Sudanese officials say dozens of young Sudanese have joined ISIS.

Several groups of students from Sudan - some holding Western passports - are said to have travelled to Syria, Iraq and Libya to join the group.

Sudanese media has reported the deaths of some of the students while fighting for the group in the three countries.

Libya's unity government in December officially announced the end of military operations in Sirte, after its forces retook what was the group's last major bastion in the country.

Libya descended into chaos following the Nato-backed ouster of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with rival administrations and militias vying for control of its vast oil wealth.

The infighting and lawlessness allowed extremist groups such as ISIS to seize several coastal regions, giving the jihadists a toehold on Europe's doorstep.

24.com encourages commentary submitted via MyNews24. Contributions of 200 words or more will be considered for publication.

See the article here:
Sudan brings home baby of ISIS fighters slain in Libya - News24

The EUs foreign policy chief has defended a deal to finance migrants camps in Libya.

Leaders agreed to send some 200 million euros to the Libyan government during a summit in Malta last week as part of strategy to to stem immigration from Africa.

When the UNHCR manages to operate in a centre and then identifies someone as someone in needs and having the right to international protection, said Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief.

The UNHCR starts a resettlement program and those persons are resettled being it in Europe, being it in Canada or in the US, that I dont know or elsewhere in the world.

The EU wants to help Libyas coast guard to stop migrants leaving in the first place. Leaders also pledged to help with protecting its southern border.

But Libya has been ravaged by conflict since the fall of Muammar Gadaffi in 2011.

The UN-backed government doesnt control all of the country; theres a rival administration in the east. And the so-Called Islamic State also operates there.

Original post:
EU defends Libya deal - euronews

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFNS) -- Two B-2 Spirit bombers departed Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri for a transatlantic flight to Libya on Jan. 18 in what would become the B-2s first combat mission since Operation Odyssey Dawn in 2011.

The demanding 30-plus-hour mission against two Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant camps required personnel with advanced expertise in the B-2s capabilities. It also required a firm grasp of total force integration. In essence, it required graduates of the 57th Wings U.S. Air Force Weapons School.

There was a deliberate effort to fill all of the (B-2 strike) seats with weapons officers because of the niche skill set we train to on our (special operations force integration) ride, said Col. Michael Drowley, the weapons school commandant.

The success of the B-2 strike demonstrated the total force integration training inherent in a weapons school education. This training made B-2 graduates of the 325th Weapons Squadron the natural go-to experts for the North Africa mission.

(It is) a testament to the awesome job the 325th instructor corps does to prepare graduates to lead in combat, Drowley said.

The weapons schools 26 weapons instructor courses employ a building-block approach to produce weapons officers who are not only doctorate-level experts in a platform or specialty, but also trailblazers in total force and joint integration planning and execution.

The final month of each class consists of the weapons school integration phase, a series of complex missions enacted in a highly contested operational environment.

The immediate applicability of WSINT to a real-world situation was highlighted during the B-2 strike.

Prior to the Libya mission, the most recent sortie flown by Capt. Nathan Mueller, the 13th Bomb Squadron B-2 flight lead, was the WSINT offensive counter-air mission he flew in December as a student.

It was a very humbling experience when my squadron commander told me that I would be flight lead for what would become the B-2's participation in Operation Odyssey Lightning, Mueller said. The dynamic targeting and inherent integration that took place en route to Libya is not something that B-2 pilots train for on a regular basis. It was, however, very much a part of the weapons school syllabus, particularly during WSINT.

The weapons school instructors do not often have the opportunity to reap the benefits of the WSINT training so quickly.

We're obviously extremely proud of the work our graduates did in combat, said Lt. Col. Daniel Hoadley, the 325th WPS commander. It's especially gratifying to see one of our graduates lead this mission on his first B-2 sortie after weapons school. I would equate it to practicing football plays with your kid in the back yard for six months and then watching them score the winning touchdown on their first game!

The true value of any integration training, however, lies in its ability to forge weapons officers who can lead and work with diverse forces.

During the strike in Libya, for example, the B-2 personnel collaborated with multiple KC-135 Stratotanker, KC-10 Extender and MQ-9 Reaper crews to achieve the mission. The 325th WPS reflected the weapons schools humble, approachable, credible motto when discussing the strike.

We recognize we are a very small piece of the big team that led to success on this mission, Hoadley said.

The weapons school plans to multiply the value of its integration training, from 2017 forward, with more syllabus opportunities earlier in the class and joint partnerships.

This expansion will ensure weapons school graduates continue to provide top-notch leadership to any mission they are called to do.

I lost count of the number of times we did something in our formation because of a lesson learned during weapons school, Mueller said. I can't think of any higher praise for a program than when combat feels like the training scenarios.

Read the original post:
USAFWS officers employ total force training during Libya B-2 strike ... - Air Force Link

Commodities giant Glencore has extended its deal with Libyas National Oil Corporation (NOC) to be the exclusive trader of around 230,000 bpd of Libyas current crude oil production of around 700,000 bpd, Reuters reported on Monday, citing sources familiar with the deal.

According to the extended deal whose period was not immediately known Glencore is entitled to be the sole trader of some 230,000 bpd from the oil fields Sarir and Mesla, Reuters sources say.

The agreement gives Glencore advantage over commodity trading rivals Vitol and Trafigura in Libyas crude oil trading market for a second year in a row.

It is a big mosaic at the moment, but Glencore has kept a large chunk of the trade, one source told Reuters.

In October last year Glencores global head of oil Alex Beard said that the mining and commodity trading giant would be seeking to take on more crude oil trading in Iraq, Iran, Libya and Russia in a bid to boost its trading division.

At the time Beard said, speaking at the Reuters Commodities Summit:

We're very happy with our relationship with NOC and we've been very pleased to support them through some difficult times in the last 12 months and we're open to do more business there.

Related:Dollar Or Iran? Oil Needs A Serious Catalyst To Breakout

Back in 2015, Glencore secured a deal with Libyas NOC to buy half of the countrys then oil output of around 400,000 bpd. That deal was for the only relatively stable onshore production in Libya at the time, with civil unrest and port blockades crippling the countrys oil production in recent years.

Lately, Libya has recovered its crude oil production to around 700,000 bpd in January. The country seeks to increase oil production to 1.25 million bpdby the end of 2017 and 1.6 million bpd by 2022, the chairman of Libyas National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanalla, said last month.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Glencore Extends Deal To Lift 230000 Bpd Of Libyan Oil - OilPrice.com