Libya

The United Nations acting Libya envoy said on Wednesday that foreign supporters of both sides in the civil war were helping them stockpile weapons in breach of an arms embargo and as coronavirus “spirals out of control” in the country.

A week of protests in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and an apparent power struggle inside the National Unity Government that controls the west of the country have both the UN and regional power brokers Egypt and Turkey jockeying to resume stalled political talks inside the country.

Libya’s U.N.-supported government Friday announced a cease-fire across the oil-rich country and called for demilitarizing the strategic city of Sirte in an initiative supported by the rival parliament in the east.

Turkey and Qatar have reiterated their support for Libya's internationally recognised government during a trip by their defence chiefs to the capital, Tripoli, where Germany's foreign minister also paid an unexpected visit. 

The German press agency DPA reports the three EU states have agreed on a blacklist of companies and individuals providing ships, aircraft, or other logistics for the transport of weapons to Libya.  

The Libyan people are increasingly scared that their future is being taken out of their hands by external actors, and that the risk of a regional war is rising, Stephanie Williams, the acting UN special envoy for Libya, said on Saturday.

[…] The figure is an increase of 65 percent from the first three months of the year, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said on Wednesday. … UNSMIL's report said most of the casualties - both those killed and wounded - were in western Libya, the scene of intense fighting after the eastern-based forces of renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar launched in April last year an offensive to seize the capital, Tripoli, from the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). 

Recent battlefield defeats have forced Haftar's eastern-based troops to hastily retreat from western Libya.