Haftar’s Libya: Hired guns and hot money
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited Benghazi on May 7th to discuss migration, economic cooperation, and her commitment ridding war-torn Libya of foreign fighters and ensuring political process, according to AFP. However optimistic, the visit drew attention from analysts who suggested that, while eastern Libyan warlord Gen. Khalifa Haftar paid lip service to convergence with the country’s internationally recognised government in Tripoli and to achieving lasting regional stability, his financial and strategic interests say otherwise.
Haftar’s Libya has become a hub for hired guns and hot money, with a significant Russian Wagner Group mercenary presence and black market.
Analyst and director of Libya’s Sadeq Institute Anas El Gomati stated via X: “Haftar has not only ignored these pleas he’s strengthened Russia turning Libya into a distribution network to fence Sudanese gold to the UAE, traffic humans from Syria to Europe & build a new base for Russia’s Afrika corps Sahel operations.”
As reported by The Guardian, Haftar is a key backer the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Sudanese-Arab militia, led by Mohamad Hamdan Dagalo, or “Hemedti”, who are currently battling Sudan’s Abdel Fattah al-Burhan-led government. According to UN data, the year-long conflict has seen around 15,000 fatalities, over eight million people displaced, and three million experiencing acute hunger.
READ: US Senate considers sanctions against Sudan RSF leader
Haftar’s Libya supplies the RSF with fuel, ammunition, weapons, and medicines, in exchange for Sudanese gold ore which is then sold to the Emiratis. Around 10,000 barrels of Libyan crude oil are diverted from a state company to be refined at the country’s al-Sarir refinery and covertly delivered to Hemedti’s forces in Sudan, according to former senior Libyan officials.
A growing presence since 2018, Russian Wagner mercenaries now number around 800 in Libya, with a further 4,600 deployed across sub-Saharan Africa , according to Al Jazeera on February 25th. In addition, the group now operates three air bases in the country, which analysts say allows both Wagner and Haftar’s Libyan National Army to move cargo to and from allies in Sudan, as-well-as other sub-Saharan locations.
READ: Wagner Group accused of gun running in Mali
A June 2019 report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime outlined an array of criminal enterprises employed to bankroll the Haftar regime including human and drug trafficking, as-well-as various forms of racketeering, extortion, the misappropriation of public funds, and corruption.
Bloomberg / The Guardian / Al Jazeera
