• Libya. Conte meets al Serraj: solution can only be political, not military
  • Libya, Di Maio: "Migrants' memorandum proposal goes in the right direction"
  • Libya, Serraj: Haftar coup attempt officially failed
  • Libya, an arm wrestling between Egypt and Turkey

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by Leonardo Sgura 29 June 2020 After a week of relative calm, the fighting resumed in Libya this morning. According to the news released by the local media, relaunched by the satellite broadcaster Al Arabiya, at dawn the forces of General Haftar triggered air attacks on a military convoy of the National Accord Government which was passing through the desert area of ​​Al Shueiref, desert area southwest of the city of Sirte, strategic terminal for the control of the country's oil industry. Other air raids were carried out against Tripoli troops east of Misurata, in the Sadada area.

It is the armed response of the LNA, the army of Cyrenaica, to the words of Mohamed Gununu, spokesman for the military operations of the Al Serraji government, who yesterday indicated Sirte and Al Jufra as the imminent targets of the Tripoli militias: their release from the Russian, Syrian and African mercenaries has become more urgent than ever and we are determined to achieve it ", reads a statement in which the GNA considers" unacceptable to speak of a ceasefire while foreign mercenaries, in league with the complicit Libyan coup leaders , they control our oil fields. "The accusation is directed against supporters of Haftar, Moscow and Abu Dhabi, but in particular to Egypt, which protects the coup leaders, says Tripoli, when it threatens to intervene" if the red line linking Al Jufra to Sirte. ”

The knot that continues to hinder dialogue at this time therefore remains control of the oil industry, the country's only resource, blocked since the end of January after local tribes and the special private militia in charge of plant security decided to side with Haftar.

Serraji, thanks to Turkey's entry into the conflict, has regained control of almost all of Tripolitania, but the $ 6 billion lost to stop oil exports create enormous difficulties for the functioning of Libyan institutions.

The diplomatic offensive of recent days sees Tripoli committed to delegitimizing Haftar as a counterpart to a possible peace negotiation, asking the international community to recognize him as a "coup and war criminal".

The International Criminal Court opened an investigation after complaints about the 11 mass graves discovered in Tarhuna. And Al Serraji wrote to the judges in The Hague, saying he was ready to collaborate with a court mission in Libya to investigate and ascertain the "Nazi" crimes against civilians as soon as possible. The UN Human Rights Council, after reporting the Tarhuna events, approved the sending of a fact-finding mission to investigate violations and abuses committed in the past four years.

UNSMIL, the United Nations mission in Libya, together with the NGO Human Rights Watch accuse the Cyrenaean troops of causing more than 100 dead and injured, with the explosive traps left in the buildings on the outskirts of the capital while removing the siege . Turkish demining teams are working to clear the affected neighborhoods. Tripoli has also asked the Italian government to send specialized military personnel for the reclamation operations, without which thousands of displaced persons cannot return to live in their homes.

Sudan announced today that it has arrested 122 people, including eight minors, hired as mercenaries to go to fight in Libya, writes the news agency Suna, according to which the militiamen were all leaving from the Darfur region. Meanwhile, Khalifa Haftar met with Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thani and Foreign Minister Andel Hadi Al Hawij in Benghazi this morning to examine a diplomatic solution to the conflict in line with the Berlin agreements, but also to repel "external aggression" and "End the militias" that invaded Libya, with a clear reference to the Turkish presence in the country.