Libya

The United Nations Security Council called on all countries on Monday to implement an arms embargo on Libya and to stay out of the conflict after U.N. sanctions monitors accused Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey of repeated violations.

US officials met with eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar as Washington presses him to end his offensive on the capital, the US State Department said.

Libya's renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar has declared a "no-fly zone" in the skies over the capital, Tripoli, drawing a warning from the country's internationally-recognised government.

Fears that Russian mercenaries, unofficially backed by Moscow, are tipping the scales in Libya in favour of the military leader Khalifa Haftar appears to have prompted the US to issue a strong warning to the general to pull back.

The attack on a military outpost near Mali’s border with Niger in which 53 soldiers and one civilian were killed on November 2, exemplifies the resilience of the Islamic State (IS) across countries in Africa. It also sends a message that IS, despite losing its founder and some of its top commanders in the Middle East last month, still has fighters loyal to its cause and has strengthened.

In Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, a gold boom is attracting the attention of diverse armed groups. Security forces are struggling to control gold mining zones in regions that the state has neglected or abandoned. Artisanal gold mining provides armed groups, in some cases including jihadists, with a new source of funding and potentially even recruits. If left unregulated, it risks fuelling violence in the region.

After some equivocation, Moscow is now reportedly throwing its weight more fully behind Libya’s maverick General Khalifa Haftar in his attempt to overthrow the United Nations-backed Tripoli government of Fayez al-Sarraj.

The Libyan civil war has found a new battlefield: the halls of Washington. The eight-year conflict shows little sign of ending, and the warring governments are stepping up their efforts to influence policymakers in the United States. Crucial to these efforts, and the Libyan conflict as a whole, is the country's oil output.

The AU could provide the legitimacy needed for a multilateral peace process in Libya, which is marred by the history of international involvement.