It may soon be the end of a blockade that has lasted for eight months.

Marshal Haftar seemed to give ballast by announcing the resumption of oil production under certain guarantees.

"We have decided to resume the production and export of oil under conditions, namely a fair distribution of oil revenues" and the guarantee that these are "not used to support terrorism," he said in a short speech broadcast on television, Friday August 18.

Indeed, groups supported by the GIP (Guards of petroleum installations) who have pledged allegiance to the Haftar camp, since January 17 have been blocking the country's most important oil fields and ports, to demand, according to them, a fair distribution of oil revenues, managed by the National Petroleum Company (NOC) and the Central Bank, based in Tripoli.

Speaking from his desk and dressed in his military uniform, Marshal Haftar said that "the command" of his forces "puts aside all military and political considerations" to address the "suffering" of the Libyans and the deterioration of the living conditions in this country which nevertheless has the most abundant oil reserves in Africa.

Nearly $ 10 billion in shortfall

In a rare protest movement in the east of the country, hundreds of Libyans demonstrated last week in Benghazi, one of Marshal Haftar's strongholds, and in other cities, against corruption and also long cuts in government. electricity and gasoline and liquidity shortages.

According to the latest figures from the National Petroleum Company, this blockage resulted in more than $ 9.8 billion (8.2 billion euros) in lost revenue.

In Tripoli, the Libyan Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity (GNA), Ahmed Maiteeq, immediately assured that it had been decided to resume oil production, adding that a committee would be responsible for overseeing the distribution of the revenues.

Undermined by violence and power struggles since the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, killed following a popular revolt in 2011, Libya depends almost entirely on the oil windfall for its economy.

But since 2015, the country has been torn by a conflict between two rival powers: the Government of National Unity (GNA), recognized by the UN and based in Tripoli, and Marshal Haftar, who reigns over the East and part from South.

With Reuters and AFP.

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