29 March 2024, Friday, 0:51
Support
the website
Sim Sim,
Charter 97!
Categories

UN experts: Belarus was selling weapons to Libyan armed groups

25
UN experts: Belarus was selling weapons to Libyan armed groups

Belarus supplied ammunition to armed groups in Libya in 2013-2014.

It is said in the report by UN Security Council's Panel of Experts on Libya, which was published by Reuters.

One example cited in the report involved the UN Security Council's 2013 approval for Belarus to export 3,000 tons of ammunition to Libya. The panel wrote that in February 2014 much of the first shipment from Belarus was not only "diverted upon arrival at Tripoli airport by brigades controlling it, but some of the deliveries appear to have been made directly to autonomous armed groups."

There were 15 other flights from Belarus. "This raises the possibility that further shipments may have been diverted by the Zintani brigades and the panel is still investigating," it said.

An armed conflict between Islamist groups and the Libyan government began on May 16, 2014, when General Khalifa Haftar launched a large-scale air and ground attack on the town of Benghazi, describing it as a “correction to the path of the revolution”.

On May 18, the building of the General National Congress in Tripoli was seized. Elections to the House of Representatives were held on June 25, and radical Islamists were defeated. In response, they launched Operation Libya Dawn on July 13 to seize Tripoli International Airport. They captured it on August 23 after 40 days of fighting.

Islamists took Tripoli under control and refused to recognise the House of Representatives and demanded to restore the General National Congress. Some GNC representatives declared themselves legitimate authorities on August 25. Omar al-Hasi was elected prime minister. The country has had two rival governments since then. The House of Representatives moved from Islamist-controlled Tripoli to the north-eastern city of Tobruk. On September 1, members of the House of Representatives ordered prime minister Abdullah al-Thani to form a new government.

Write your comment 25

Follow Charter97.org social media accounts