BENGHAZI: Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar will transfer control of oil ports recently recaptured by his forces to the administration in eastern Libya he supports, a spokesman for the field marshal said Monday.
Haftar’s announcement came just hours after his Libyan National Army said it had regained “full control” of the country’s oil crescent after driving a rival militia out of the area.
“All the oil installations controlled by (Haftar’s) Libyan National Army are being handed over to the National Oil Corporation dependent on the provisional eastern government and that is headed by Faraj Al-Hassi,” spokesman Ahmad Al-Mesmari said.
Haftar supports an administration based in Libya’s east that opposes the internationally recognized government in Tripoli.
The LNA already announced last Thursday that it had recaptured the Ras Lanuf and Al-Sidra terminals, a week after they were seized by armed groups led by militia leader Ibrahim Jadhran, although military operations in the area were unfinished.
Jadhran’s Petroleum Facilities Guard controlled the two key oil ports for years following the 2011 NATO-backed removal of Muammar Qaddafi — but they were eventually forced out by the LNA in September 2016.
The spokesman Mesmari said oil revenues from the four terminals now under LNA control would be handled by the administration in the east supported by Haftar.
Haftar made the decision after realizing “rival armed groups are financed by oil revenues secured by the LNA,” Mesmari said, referring to Jadhran’s forces.
Up until now, the terminals have been managed by the National Oil Company tied to Libya’s internationally recognized government based in Tripoli.
The NOC is chaired by Mustafa Sanalla, who represented Libya last week at an OPEC meeting in Vienna.
Clashes between Jadhran’s forces and the LNA in the oil crescent pushed the NOC on June 14 to suspend exports from terminals in the area, warning of billions of dollars in losses.
After visiting the Ras Lanuf terminal on Sunday, the NOC said violence had slashed oil production by almost half and cost billions of dollars in losses.
Libya’s economy relies heavily on oil, with production at 1.6 million barrels per day under Qaddafi.
The uprising that led Qaddafi’s demise saw production fall to about 20 percent of that level, before recovering to more than one million barrels per day by the end of 2017.
Haftar hands captured Libyan oil terminals to eastern administration
Haftar hands captured Libyan oil terminals to eastern administration
- Libyan National Army says it had regained “full control” of oil crescent.
- Haftar supports administration in the east that opposes government in Tripoli.
UN rights chief shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
