A very detailed study by the United Nations Security Council has accused the Libyan National Army run by Khalifa Haftar, who controls the east of Libya from the city of Benghazi, of widespread oil trafficking, human trafficking, gold and drug smuggling and also supplying weapons to the genocidal Rapid Support Forces in Sudan.
The report is the initiative of various countries including Malta when it lead the United Nations Security Council. Extensive international investigations have been conducted including about oil trafficking in Libya which concluded that Hurd’s Bank is a hotspot for oil trafficking. Malta pushed to extend this initiative and proposed to create an international entity which investigates sanctions-breaking and international smuggling. Work on this international entity is still underway. The Maltese Herald could confirm its story about the Nigerian oil sale from Hurd’s Bank via this committee of experts.
You can read the full UNSC report here.
Here are some of its main points.
The Libyan National Army (LNA) is smuggling diesel from the National Oil Corporation and the Brega Petroleum Marketing Company. This is bunkered in the old harbour in Benghazi and is then sold in Hurd’s Bank.
The LNA is involved in gold smuggling through other armed Libyan groups and smugglers in the west who are in contact with Malian and Tuareg rebels that are financing their activities via smuggling gold.
The LNA is also involved in human trafficking and drug smuggling, mostly via tribal connections and armed groups. As of recently the Libyan tribes in the Kufra region declared that they were against smuggling and will not allow their tribes to be engaged in this practice. Currently, the LNA is also conducting operations and human traffickers in the Kufra region.
The LNA is also involved in arming and supplying the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan. The Chadian border is also being used for such smuggling operations and weapons and trucks are often transferred from Libya to Sudan to the RSF.
Small groups of ISIL terrorists are still operating in the Libyan desert and these are also involved in smuggling.
Al-Habouni and Al-Katani families in Musaid and Tobruk are involved in extensive human trafficking operations and are also trafficking people to Greece. The LNA detained members of these families who were members of the LNA following the discoveries of the UNSC investigation.
The LNA is not the only official entity involved in smuggling in Libya and armed and military groups in the west of Libya are also involved in smuggling and illegal operations. the report however focuses on the Libyan National Army. Lately, the LNA has been making public and visible efforts to combat human traffickers in the south-east of the country but smuggling, slavery, kidnapping and human trafficking is still ongoing.
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