Libya

28 Aug 2020; MEMO: The Libyan tribe Qadhadhfa yesterday called on all its members to withdraw immediately from the forces of renegade General Khalifa Haftar.

This came in a statement of the Social Council of the Libyan tribe Qadhadhfa, reported by local media.

The declaration called on members of the Qadhadhfa tribe to “withdraw immediately and remove Haftar’s mercenaries from their areas in Sirte.”

TRIPOLI, Aug 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — New evidence has uncovered that a drone operated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) killed 26 unarmed cadets at a military academy in Libya’s capital Tripoli in January 2020.

At the time of the strike on Jan 4, Tripoli was under siege by the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA).

It has denied responsibility for the attack and suggested the cadets had been killed by local shelling.

But evidence indicates the cadets were hit by a Chinese Blue Arrow 7 missile.

22 Aug 2020; MEMO: Libya’s internationally recognised government in Tripoli announced a ceasefire on Friday and the leader of a rival parliament in eastern Libya also appealed for a halt to hostilities, Reuters reports.

The statements offered hope for a deescalation of a conflict that has wrecked the country since a 2011 uprising, displacing hundreds of thousands, slashing oil production, and opening space for migrant smugglers and militants.

TRIPOLI, Aug 12 (NNN-Xinhua) — The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that 23 illegal immigrants have been rescued off the Libyan coast.

“Today, 23 migrants, among them two women and one child were returned to Libya by the coast guard,” IOM tweeted.

“IOM staff who were onsite provided emergency assistance. More than 7,000 migrants were returned to Libya so far this year,” IOM said.

TRIPOLI, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Militarization of oil facilities and presence of mercenaries in those facilities can lead to disasters severer than the recent deadly explosions in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, warned the state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) of the UN-backed Libyan government on Sunday.

Two huge explosions rocked the Port of Beirut on Tuesday, leaving at least 158 people dead and 6,000 others wounded.

08 Aug 2020; MEMO: The political official from the Libyan National Struggle Front, Ahmed Gaddaf Al Dam, blamed NATO and UN Security Council over the political crisis and struggles in Libya, news agencies reported on Friday.

Speaking to Russia’s Sputnik News Agency, Gaddaf Al Dam, who is the cousin of the late Libyan dictator Muamar al Gadhafi, said that “what happened in Libya is based on a falsehood, and what is built on falsehood is void.”

08 Aug 2020; MEMO: The Turkish-backed Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) stressed that it will not allow any party to violate its maritime rights, responding to the conclusion of an agreement on Thursday between Egypt and Greece on the demarcation of their maritime borders.

08 Aug 2020; MEMO: The National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced that Libya’s losses have amounted to about $7.9 billion since the beginning of 2020 due to the closures of oil installations by General Khalifa Haftar’s militia, according to a statement reported by a Libyan TV channel.

The latest estimates regarding losses in this sector were announced by the NOC on 21 July, at around $7.24 billion.

05 Aug 2020; MEMO: Libya’s Toubou tribes yesterday filed a lawsuit at the International Criminal Court (ICC) against renegade General Khalifa Haftar over last year’s massacre in the city of Murzuq.

In a statement, tribal leader Issa Abdel-Majid Mansour said the lawsuit seeks to “punish criminals and terrorists who committed the massacre of bombing a residential neighbourhood in the city of Murzuq”.

30 July 2020; MEMO: Libya’s delegate to the United Nations (UN) Taher Al-Sunni criticised the selectivity of the UN sanctions committees, stressing their ineffectiveness in stopping violations and agency to some countries that aim to achieve political goals in his country.