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UN-proposed governments Interior Ministry issued a statement to deny media news about the resignation of the minister-designate, Aref Al-Khouja, saying he underwent a heart surgery last December in Tunisia and went back to work after he recovered.

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Agreement between Wirshiffana tribesmen and Janzour notables was put off until a further notice upon the latters will, said the spokesman of the Fursan Janzour Brigade, Abdelhamid Ganis. He added that they asked for time to consider the agreement, whose points were of mutual consensus by the two parties.

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Labreg airports deputy head of passports control department said they started implementing the order of the eastern governor, Abdelraziq Al-Nathori that bans Libyan women from traveling abroad without a man-of-kin.

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The body of a man, named Ahmed Al-Naeli, was found on the road in Wirshiffana after being kidnapped from in front of his house in Sayad district by a Wirshiffana gang, who demanded a huge ransom and when his family failed to pay, they killed him.

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Vaccination campaign for ninth graders in Tripoli was launched Saturday in all healthcare centers. The Tripoli medical services department called on parents to head to the nearest centers to make sure their children get the vaccines.

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Algerian humanitarian aids arrive in Ghat and Ubari via the Libyan-Algerian border checkpoints of Dabdab and Teen Al-Koum on the Algerian side. According to Algerias army, 30 tons of foods were brought on a flight from the capital to southern Algeria, and then they entered Libya via the land border crossing.

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Members of the aviation authority held a sit-in in front of Sabha municipality urging for the reopening of the citys airport and calling on the officials to work on solving the issues in order to reopen the airport, which was shut in 2014 due to security issues, but it is ready now for flights.

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Libyan Beach Soccer Federation announced the death of Libyan player Essam Al-Sharif to pay tribute to his remarkable contribution to Libyas beach soccer team in regional and continental competitions.

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IOM said it had hired a plane and helped deport 334 illegal immigrants to Senegal and Nigeria from Mitiga airport in Tripoli. On the first flight to Nigeria, 162 migrants: 101 women, 43 men, and 18 children were repatriated, whereas on the second flight to Senegal, 172 migrants including one woman were sent back home.

Continued here:
News Roundup - Sun, Feb 19, 2017 - The Libya Observer

Libyas imports have shrunk by 45% over the last couple of years in comparison to the normal ratio of the countrys imports, confirmed the Head of the media office of the Libyan Ports Company, Mohammed Al-Gweri.

Al-Gweri added that in 2016, the imports decreased by 17% compared to 2015 due to the financial hiccup in Libya.

Shipped goods and commodities to Libya reached 5.3 million tons in 2016, while they reached 6.4 million tons in 2015. Al-Gweri explained.

He remarked that the drop in imports affected the basic goods such as grains, whose imports amounted to 2.6 million tons last year compared to 3 million tons in 2013.

Difficulties facing businesspersons to open letters of credit, and the shortage of foreign currencies at commercial banks are two reason behind the decrease of imports ratio. Al-Gweri indicated.

Late in 2016, the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) in Tripoli allocated 750 million dollars for the letters of credit for businesspersons to use in importing foods and medicines in the first two months of 2017.

Libyan operating ports are in Tripoli, Al-Khums, Misrata, Brega and Tobruk, while Ras Lanuf port is barely operating and Benghazi and Derna ports are shut. Al-Gweri pointed out.

Libyans are currently suffering from a loud-out market with prices of basic goods and foods soaring day in and day out amid very deteriorated living standards and economic conditions in the country.

Libya is 85% dependent on importation to cover the needs of the people in all kinds of goods and commodities, which has become a nightmarish business as the dollar keeps leaping in the black market reaching $1=LYD7 before resting at around $1=LYD6 in the black market, when its official rate is $1=LYD1.4.

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Libya's imports plummet by 45% in two years - The Libya Observer

February 19, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - Second son of the late leader of Jamaat Ansar al Sunnah in Sudan, Abu Zaid Mohamed Hamzah, has been killed during an air raid against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Sirte town, 500 kilometres east of the Libyan capital Tripoli.

Mohamed Khalifa Siddig, an expert on Islamic groups told Sudan Tribune Sunday that Mohamed Abu Zaid Mohamed Hamza, 27 and his wife were killed in Sirte, saying his family received the news and will set up a mourning tent at their home in Khartoums twin city of Omdurman.

He added that some Libyan humanitarian groups have received the three sons of the slain Islamist in order to transfer them to Sudan.

According to Siddig, Mohamed left Sudan to join ISIS ranks in Libya six months after his older brother, Abdul-Ilah travelled to join the group in 2012.

It is noteworthy that Abdul-Ilah was killed in clashes in Sirte in 2015.

Also, their third brother Abdel Raouf was sentenced to death for killing an employee from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Khartoum on 2008 New Years Eve.

Earlier this month, Al-laithi Youssef, father of Aya Youssef who joined ISIS in December 2015 and was killed in Sirte alongside her husband Ahmed Gasm al-Sid after she delivered a baby daughter, arrived in Khartoum from Libya accompanied by his baby granddaughter.

He told reporters that the Sudanese security in coordination with the Red Crescent have orchestrated a complex operation to hand over the baby in Libya, saying they conducted the necessary tests to establish her descent as well as her health and safety.

In 2015, the Ministry of Interior in Khartoum announced that about 70 Sudanese had gone to join the ISIS franchises, both in Libya and Syria.

However, experts on Islamic groups put the total number of the Sudanese fighters within ISIS at 150 Jihadists, saying that 56 of them had traveled to join the extremist organization from countries other than Sudan.

They say that 35 of them have been killed in Iraq and Syria while 20 others have died in Libya.

Following the fall of Muammar Gaddafis 40-year-rule in 2011, Libya has slid into chaos and has become the most important transit country of illegal migrants to Europe.

Also, ISIS presence in Libya has become a source of threat not only to its neighbouring countries but also to Europe.

(ST)

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Second son of Sudanese prominent Salafi leader killed in Libya - Sudan Tribune

February 19, 2017 - 19:47

A patrol for the Libyan Coast Guard has saved 185 illegal migrants onboard a big dinghy off northern Sabratha shores.

They were rescued at dawn about 5 miles off the shore. The spokesman of the Libyan Navy, Ayoub Qassim remarked.

He explained that a third of the migrants were women and there were several children as well, pointing out that they were from different African countries.

Human traffickers have started using big dinghies to accommodate more migrants and because they are relatively stronger in the water. Qassim explained, saying those inflatable boats are unseaworthy in terms of equipment or safety.

That is why the dinghies pose a life threat to the immigrants especially if the sea was angry with high waves and beating winds coupled with panic-driven movements by the migrants onboard. The Navy official added.

He said that the Libyan coastguards drove the boat to the Al-Zawiya refinery and after providing the migrants with the necessary assistance, they were sent to the Al-Zawiya Illegal Immigration Fight Authoritys shelter center.

Likewise, Al-Zawiya coastguards rescued Saturday a number of illegal migrants aboard a dinghy, thus making the number of immigrants rescued off the Libyan coast reach 305 in three days.

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Libyan coastguards rescue 185 immigrants off Sabratha coast - The Libya Observer

BRUSSELS: The focus of Nato's conference in Brussels, the first since Donald Trump got to the White House, was on the message he sent to an organisation of Western allies he had called "obsolete" while speaking of his admiration for Vladimir Putin.

The message, a veiled threat, conveyed by US Defence Secretary James Mattis, was that the continuing failure of the alliance to pay its share on security would lead to the US reevaluating its commitment to the defence of Europe. That and the continuing fallout over Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn's departure after clandestine contacts with the Russians, were the sources of fascination and foreboding here. Almost unnoticed a development took place at the end of the summit, on Libya, which is likely to have great resonance in relations between Nato, the US and Russia, Trump and Putin. Nato's secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, announced that the alliance is likely to provide security support to the Libyan government of Fayez al-Sarraj.

"We have said for some time that we are ready to help Libya but that any assistance has to be based on a request from the Libyan government," said Stoltenberg. "This is the request we received yesterday - training local forces is one of the best weapons in the fight against terrorism and building stability."

Libya has, of course, become a source of huge trouble for Europe since David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy instigated Nato's military intervention and the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi six years ago. It is the main conduit for hundreds of thousands of refugees crossing the Mediterranean and also the lawless place where Isis has established its main base for carrying out attacks in the Maghreb.

Special forces of Western countries are already in action in Libya - the US has carried out airstrikes on Isis and other Islamist terrorists. But any formal deployment of forces by Nato faces problems. There is the danger of mission creep: being sucked into a violent and semi-anarchic quagmire, as well as the fact that the Government of National Accord, headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, which Nato is supposed to prop up, has very little territory and very little power.

The man who claims to wield real power - an aspiring new Gaddafi according to his enemies - is former general Khalifa Haftar with his force the Libyan National Army (LNA). He has the backing of Egypt and the UAE whose warplanes have carried out airstrikes in his support. Now, crucially, he has the support of a Russia expanding its influence across the Middle-East and North Africa.

General Haftar went to Moscow twice last year to seek help and then turned up on board the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov as it was returning from waters off the coast of Syria where it had been part of the blitzkrieg enabling Bashar al-Assad to recapture Aleppo. He met the Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, on board, to discuss, according to the Kremlin, "fighting international terrorist groups in the Middle East."

The US under Barack Obama had refused to deal with General Haftar but the Libyan commander and his backers, the parliament in Benghazi, one of the country's three governments, say they are also now optimistic that they will get the support of the Trump administration.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was the first foreign leader to congratulate Trump after his victory and the Egyptian president has been pressing Washington to switch its support to General Haftar. And, according to reports, members of the Trump team have started discussing the Haftar option. An American official in Brussels commented: "The Trump people may well think Libya would be a less sensitive theatre to cooperate with the Russians on counter-terrorism than Syria: the common conception is that Libya is a mess - we have Daesh [Isis] running around there and if this guy Haftar is being effective, then maybe he is the man."

Even before the coming of Trump there has been a feeling among some American officials that the problems being faced by Europe from Libya were, to an extent, self-induced. Paris and London were very much the cheerleaders in getting rid of Colonel Gaddafi, with Washington somewhat dubious about the outcome. The military mission was initially French and British led, but the Americans had to step in as shortfalls in equipment and bombs and missiles became apparent. In his speech to Nato at the end of the conflict, US defence secretary Leon Panetta warned that "legitimate questions about whether, if present trends continue, Nato will again be able to sustain the kind of operations we have seen in Libya without the US taking on even more of the burden."

The "trends" that Panetta was talking about was most of Nato not paying their way for the defence of the alliance. American officials pointed out that Mattis was having to make the same point again, much more forcefully, this week, six years later.

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Libya, not Syria, will be the foundation of Trump and Putin's new world order - Times of India