West Africa’s Sahel region has become the latest scene of jihadist in-fighting, after Islamic State group (IS) revealed it is engaged in fierce clashes with al-Qaeda militants in Mali and Burkina Faso.
Russia has stepped up its logistic support for private military contractor Wagner Group in Libya with some 338 military cargo flights from Syria in the nine months to July 31 to aid Wagner fighters backing eastern-based Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar, according to a U.N. report seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
The French government is investigating a senior French military officer working at an Italy-based NATO facility, monitoring the situation in Libya and the Sahara, for passing sensitive information to Russian.
Libyan sources suggested that Al-Attiyah and Akkar came to Libya this week to discuss battle plans for the campaign on Sirte and the oil terminals.
Playing on contradictions, they aim to perpetuate chaos as their best chance for survival.
Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) suspended Misratan-born Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha on Friday, setting up a major split within the Tripoli-based government that threatens progress toward a cease-fire in the wider civil war.
The Spokesman for the Sirte Al-Jufra Operations Room, Abdel Hadi Drah, confirmed the landing of an Antonov military cargo plane, which belongs to Haftar’s militia groups, at Al-Qardabiya base in Sirte on Sunday.
The developments point to escalating tensions between the two sides’ powerful militias, which some fear could culminate in military confrontation.
US military’s Africa Command says satellite image indicates Moscow’s Ministry of Defence is ‘supporting’ Russian paramilitary contractor
The United States military’s Africa Command (Africom) said new evidence gathered in Libya points to Russia’s continued involvement in the conflict via a paramilitary contractor known as the Wagner Group.
The Intelligence and Information Unit of the Operations Command of the Libyan Army has detected columns of armed forces moving towards Al-Jufra district from the east, said the Libyan Army Spokesman, Colonel Mohammad Gununu, confirming that the forces are stationing in three schools in Hun town.