Libya

After Paris and Cairo, Mohamed el-Menfi, President of the Libyan Presidential Council, visited Ankarace on Friday 26 March. There he met with Turkish Prime Minister Reçep Tayyip Erdogan. A "working meeting", confirms the news agency Anadolu, to "discuss the multi-rooted relations" between the two countries. An official request came to President Reçep Tayyip Erdogan to withdraw Syrian mercenaries as well as Turkish military experts who were present in Tripoli at the end of May 2020. According to a Libyan government…

Ocean Viking, the boat from NGO SOS Méditerranée, completed its eleventh rescue mission in the central Mediterranean this week. He arrived on Tuesday at the Italian port of Augusta where the 116 people he rescued outside the Mediterranean could disembark. The crew carried out two interventions, one of which disrupted the role played by the Libyan security forces.…

The foreign ministers of France, Germany and Italy were in Tripoli to meet their Libyan counterpart on Thursday in a demonstration in support of the war-torn country's newly formed unity government. The joint visit of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Germany's Heiko Maas and Italy's Luigi Di Maio comes ten days after the formation of an interim government to lead Libya to the December elections. Oil-rich Libya sank into chaos after dictator Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown and killed in a 2011 NATO uprising,…

The UN's new special envoy for Libya called on foreign forces and mercenaries on Wednesday to leave the conflict-torn country required in last year's ceasefire agreement. Speaking to the UN Security Council, Jan Kubis warned of "pitfalls" that could hinder or delay the December elections in order to provide a unified government for the nation after years of division. Kubis said the ceasefire agreement in October remains in force, but foreign forces and mercenaries have not provided and "there are reports of ongoing…

A Libyan warlord, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), was shot dead on Wednesday, March 24, in Benghazi, in the east. This is Mahmoud al-Werfalli, a member of the forces loyal to Marshal Khalifa Haftar, a strongman from eastern Libya and commander of the Libyan National Army. Al-Werfalli was the subject of two ICC war crimes arrest warrants.…

France will reopen its embassy in Tripoli on Monday, March 29. This was announced by Emmanuel Macron to the representatives of the new Libyan transitional government, which he received at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday 23 March. Libyan President Mohamed al Manfi and Vice President Moussa al Koni welcomed Paris' support for the ongoing reconciliation and stabilization process in Libya. France has offered…

Libya's eastern administration on Tuesday officially handed over power to a new executive set to unite the war - torn country and steer it towards elections later this year. The Government of National Unity (GNU), elected through a UN-backed process, is the latest internationally supported bid to end a decade of chaos in the North African nation and unite rival administrations. Under the leadership of the caretaker Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, the GNU replaces both the Tripoli-based National Accord Government…

Mohammad Menfi, head of Libya's presidential council, called for reconciliation between the war - torn country's institutions on Monday and expressed his support for the executive branch. Menfi received Jan Kubis, the UN Special Envoy to Libya, at his office in Tripoli and Raisedon Zenenga, the coordinator of the UN Libya Support Mission (UNSMIL), according to a statement from the Presidential Council. Menfi pointed out that the new executive is dependent on the decisions taken in Geneva and said that…

The Tunisian president visited Libya on Wednesday, March 17, the first visit by a head of state to the new heads of government of national unity. The menu for the meeting was plentiful: the fate of the jihadist families, the position vis-à-vis Israel and economic cooperation. as reported from Tunis Mathieu GaltierThe visit was…

Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar on Wednesday said in a letter to the port and maritime transport administration that his forces do not oppose the docking of Turkish-flagged commercial ships in the port of eastern Benghazi province, which his militias control. "We have no objection to entering our ports with Turkish-flagged commercial vessels following the stated legal procedures and legislation," Libya Al-Hadath, a pro-Haftar television station, quoted him in the letter. Libya has been torn apart by…