The number of arms embargo violations in Libya detected fell in 2021 compared to the previous year, but the “continued presence” of fighters from Chad, Sudan, Syria and Russia is “always a serious threat,” a report said. UN experts.
Although the “intensive rate of arms deliveries” is no longer evident, “the arms embargo remains completely ineffective,” say experts tasked with overseeing its implementation in a confidential interim document recently distributed to the 15 Security Council member states and which consulted the French Agency yesterday Tuesday.
For their research, which covers the period from January to November, the experts went to Libya in April and September, where they were able to visit, for the first time since 2017, Benghazi (east), the stronghold of General Khalifa. Haftar, a candidate for the presidency in the elections scheduled for December 24.
They say they also went to France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Tunisia.
“The control of the logistics chains by some Member States continues, which significantly prevents the detection, interruption or interception of arms shipments,” the text said, without naming any state.
“Given the deliveries made in 2020, arms stocks remain high and sufficient to fuel any future conflict,” the authors warn, stressing that much of the country continues to be controlled by armed groups benefiting from the reconciliation approach to transitional principles “.
Despite repeated calls for the mercenaries to leave, “the warring parties always keep foreign fighters in their ranks, especially citizens of Chad, Sudan and Syria, as well as employees of Russian private military companies.” The team of experts “has no evidence that there has been a large-scale departure (of mercenaries) to date”, the text insists.
Syrian fighters who helped Turkish forces defend Tripoli when Khalifa Haftar’s forces tried to seize it are being paid between $ 800 and $ 2,000 a month, experts say.
The text states that the complaints made in September about French involvement in the Libyan south are rejected by Paris. “France has denied any involvement of its forces in operations against the FACT (Chad Front for Change and Unity in Chad) on Libyan soil,” the report said.
The document also states that military flights to Libya “clearly decreased in 2021” compared to 2020 from the United Arab Emirates, Russia – sometimes via Syria – and Turkey.
Russian military flights to eastern Libya, which is a stopover in the Central African Republic, “fell by 55%”, those of the Turkish army “by 64”, but “on the contrary”, the flights “of the Syrian airline Cham Wings Airlines increased by 71% “, probably due to” the replacement of foreign fighters “.
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