A confidential report by United Nations experts confirmed that the intense pace of banned arms shipments to Libya has declined, but the arms embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council is still ineffective due to the control of “some member states” over supply chains, which directly impeded the discovery or disruption of arms transfers to Libya.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that the interim report received by 15 members of the Security Council confirmed that the presence of Chadian, Sudanese, Syrian and Russian mercenaries in Libya still poses a serious threat to the situation in the country, expressing regret that the parties to the conflict keep foreign fighters in their forces, despite the international demands for withdrawal.
Turkey’s Syrian mercenaries in Libya receive salaries ranging between 800 and 2000 dollars per month – according to the report – while the number of Russian military flights to the east of the country and the Central African Republic decreased by 55%, and the flights operated by the Turkish army to western Libya decreased “by 64%”.
The report of the United Nations experts warned of the transfers that took place in 2020, pointing out that the stockpile of weapons is high and sufficient to fuel any future conflict, and that the largest part of Libya is still under the control of Libyan armed groups that benefit from a conciliatory approach taken by the interim authorities.
It is noteworthy that the experts who prepared the report are mandated by the Security Council to monitor the extent to which countries respect its decision to prevent the sending of weapons to Libya. The report covers the period between January and November 2021, by monitoring information from inside Libya, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Tunisia.
