The return of the notorious human trafficker, Ahmed Al-Dabbashi, known as “Ammo or Al-Ammo” and his appearance in a new video after the control of Government of National Accord’s (GNA) armed groups over the cities of Sabratha and Sorman, releasing 400 dangerous prisoners, has raised many questions about the reasons why Italy abandoned the GNA. Thus, leaving answers open for speculation, yet one obvious reason would be GNA’s links to human traffickers.
Italian media referred to what it described as “fears” of the return of human trafficking from Libya through gangs of human traffickers positioned on the Libyan coast with the assistance of local authorities. These fears came after the armed groups affiliated with the GNA tightened their control over the cities of Sabratah and Sorman, which are among the most prominent takeoff points for immigrants’ boats west of the country.
Several Italian newspapers, including “Corriere della Sera”, said that the reemergence of “Al-Ammo” – known as “the king of oil smugglers and human traffickers” – who is wanted by the United Nations Security Council and the Libyan Attorney General, has been laying low last year since the start of the Libyan National Army’s operations in Tripoli in April 2019.
Meanwhile, the interpretation at the time, for his disappearance, was that he had been imprisoned, due to fighting between political figures and militias over sharing financial aid that was provided by the Italian intelligence to the security services of the GNA to stem the flow of illegal immigration from Libya toward Europe.
Italian journalist Francesco Battistini recalled the famous hearing that sparked media attention to the former Italian Interior Minister, Marco Minniti, who denied any relationship with human smugglers in Libya, including “Al-Ammo” and “Bedja”: Abdelrahman Milad, who is accused by the Security Council of being involved in human smuggling and killing of migrants.
The incident was, according to the Italian newspaper “Avonier” at the time, that officials of the Italian intelligence service held a meeting with representatives of the GNA in the “Cara de Mineo” center to receive immigrants in Sicily in May 2017. Participants included Milad, known as “Pedja”, who was attending as a commander of the Libyan Coast Guard. Photos were published showing him at the meeting, which caused widespread controversy in the European Union.
According to reports by the UN Security Council issued in 2018 – during the peak of trafficking of illegal immigrants – based on accounts of immigrants who were arrested by armed groups affiliated with the Ministry of the Interior of the GNA, most of the armed groups in the Libyan West are involved in smuggling people and goods, and they are backed by political figures as well as military personnel from official security apparatuses Libya.
What raises Italian suspicion and fears today is that the appearance of human smugglers coincides with the Turkish presence on the land and off the Libyan coast, in addition to the continuous flights to transport Syrian fighters via Turkey to fight for GNA forces. This in many ways allows those fighters to go to Europe across the Mediterranean with the help of their allies from the GNA and its smugglers, who now control the Libyan coastal cities.
