North Africa

Libya: pressure on Haftar’s forces over ‘disappeared’

Amnesty International urged the self-proclaimed Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) to reveal the whereabouts of former defense minister al-Mahdi al-Barghathi and 18 of his relatives and supporters who were abducted in Benghazi, the principal LAAF stronghold, one year ago. Al-Barghathi, who served as minister of defense from 2016 to 2018, strongly condemned the LAAF offensive on Tripoli from April 2019 to October 2020. On Oct. 7, 2023, after his return to his hometown of Benghazi, he and 38 of his family and supporters were abducted by LAAF followers. Some of them have been released, and six are reported dead, including al-Barghathi’s son. But the fate of the other 19 remain unknown. There are suspicions that some of them may have been extrajudicially executed. Al-Barghathi himself has also been reported to be dead. However, his family has never received his body, and demands that the LAAF disclose the burial site and identify his remains through DNA testing. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)

North Africa

Unrecognized Libya government suspends oil exports

Libya’s unrecognized eastern government announced the suspension of oil exports in response to attacks on employees of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL). The oil-field shutdown comes amid an ongoing dispute between the eastern government and the UN-recognized government in Tripoli over the leadership of the CBL. The CBL earlier this month suspended its operations after several employees were abducted by unidentified parties. (Photo: Libya Observer)

North Africa

More mass graves discovered in Libya

A mass grave containing two dozen bodies was discovered in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte, once controlled by ISIS. The National Authority for Searching & Identifying Missing People, a body of the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, said its team is recovering the 24 bodies found under destroyed buildings in the district of al-Kambo. A mass grave was similarly uncovered in the city in October 2022. Another mass grave is meanwhile reported to have been found in the desert along the Libya-Tunisia border, the UN Human Rights Commission confirmed. This was the second such mass grave found on Libya’s borderlands this year. In March, the International Organization for Migration reported the discovery of the bodies of at least 65 presumed migrants in southwest Libya. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)

North Africa

Survivors of Libya prison massacre demand justice

A group representing families of the victims of Libya’s Abu Salim Prison Massacre protested in Tripoli on the 28th anniversary of the killings, decrying the failure to achieve justice in the case. The association urged “that the secrets of the crime be revealed, justice be established, retribution be imposed, and that everyone who participated in this horrific massacre receive their deserved punishment.” Thirteen years after the fall of Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi’s regime, there has still been no legal judgment or even serious investigation in the case. It is believed that over 1,000 were killed by prison guards in the 1996 incident, sparked by an inmate protest over poor conditions. (Photo: Libya Observer)

Greater Middle East

Podcast: from Palestine to Western Sahara

Benjamin Netanyahu’s gaffe on French TV, displaying a map of the “Arab World” that showed the occupied (and illegally annexed) Western Sahara as a separate entity from Morocco, sparked a quick and obsequious apology from the Israeli Foreign Ministry. But the snafu sheds light on the mutual hypocrisy at work here. There is an obvious hypocrisy to Moroccan protests that demand self-determination for the Palestinians but not the Sahrawi, the indigenous Arab inhabitants of Western Sahara. The hypocrisy of Israel is also obvious: Israeli commentators and hasbara agents are the first to play the “whataboutery” game—relativizing the plight of the Palestinians by pointing to that of Kurds, Berbers, Nubians, Massalit and other stateless peoples oppressed under Arab regimes. But, as we now see, they are just as quick to completely betray them when those regimes recognize Israel and betray the Palestinians. Yet another example of how a global divide-and-rule racket is the essence of the state system. Bill Weinberg breaks it down in Episode 229 of the CounterVortex podcast. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: Kirby Gookin/Western Sahara Resource Center)

Greater Middle East

Netanyahu’s new map flap: multiple ironies

Israel was forced to apologize to Morocco after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was seen in a video displaying a map of the Middle East and North Africa—that failed to show the occupied (and illegally annexed) territory of Western Sahara as within the kingdom’s borders. Netanyahu brandished the map in an interview with a French TV channel, showing what he called “the Arab world” in green, a swath of near-contiguous territory from Iraq to Mauritania—contrasting small, isolated Israel, “the one and only Jewish state.” The goof was especially dire because in 2020 Israel joined the US as the only two countries on Earth to recognize Moroccan annexation of Western Sahara, in exchange for Moroccan recognition of the Jewish state under the Trump administration-brokered Abraham Accords. This was a cozy mutual betrayal of both the Palestinians and Sahrawi Arabs, the indigenous inhabitants of occupied Western Sahara. (Image: Twitter via Middle East Eye)

North Africa

Tunisia: lawyers strike amid crackdown on dissent

In an unprecedented move, striking lawyers from across Tunisia rallied in front of court buildings in Tunis, effectively bringing all proceedings to a halt. The unified action comes in response to what legal professionals are describing as a dangerous escalation by the government targeting their community. The Tunisia Lawyers Council called for a nationwide strike after police conducted a raid on the headquarters of Tunisia’s bar association and arrested Sonia Dahmani, a prominent attorney and critic of the government. The Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT) joined other civil society organizations in lending their support to the striking lawyers. (Photo: Abir Khlif/Jurist)

North Africa

War crimes suits against Libya’s Haftar dismissed

A US judge dismissed a group of civil lawsuits accusing Libyan military leader Khalifa Haftar of war crimes. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said she had no jurisdiction to preside over a case concerning crimes committed in Libya—even though Haftar has US citizenship and lived for more than 20 years in the DC suburbs of northern Virginia. In the suits, first filed in 2019 under the Torture Victim Protection Act, the plaintiffs charged that family members were killed in bombardments conducted by Haftar’s forces on civilian areas of Tripoli that year. Plaintiffs noted that Haftar’s extensive properties in Virginia could have been used to compensate the survivors. The head of the Libyan-American Alliance, Issam Omeish, expressed his regret over the court’s decision, calling it a setback in the groups’ work seeking justice and accountability for rights abuses in Libya’s civil war. (Photo: Haftar with US embassy Chargé d’Affaires Leslie Ordeman and USAF Lt. Gen. John Lamontagne, January 2023. Via Wikimedia Commons)

Europe

Italy detains rescue ship after sea confrontation with Libya

At least one person drowned after a group jumped overboard from a migrant boat as the EU-supported Libyan coast guard fired shots into the water to stop an NGO vessel from carrying out a rescue operation. The rescue vessel Humanity 1 was subsequently seized and ordered detained for 20 days by Italy—over the protests of the German non-governmental organization that operates it, SOS Humanity. Italian authorities invoked the Piantedosi Decree, a new legal provision that imposes a stricter set of requirements for charities that rescue migrants at sea, with potential penalties of stiff fines and impoundment of ships. The Humanity 1 is currently being held at Crotone, a port in Italy’s southern region of Calabria. (Photo: Teddybär500 via Wikimedia Commons)

Africa

Russia creates new Africa Corps

Following the death of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian ministries of defense and foreign affairs quickly moved to reassure African client states that business as usual would continue—meaning that Moscow’s unofficial boots on the ground would keep operating in these countries. Now reports indicate a transformation, with Wagner’s estimated force of 5,000 troops—deployed from the Sahel to Libya to Sudan—to be brought under Defense Ministry command as a new Africa Corps. (Photo: Russian mercenaries in the Central African Republic. Credit: Corbeau News Centrafrique via Wikipedia)

Europe

Synagogues attacked in Germany, Tunisia

Unknown assailants targeted a Berlin synagogue with Molotov cocktails, while rioters in Tunisia burned down the country’s historic El Hamma synagogue. There was no significant property damage at the Kahal Adass Jisroel synagogue in Berlin, but El Hamma in the Tunisian city of Gabes was effectively destroyed. Although El Hamma no longer functioned as a house of worship, it held major symbolic significance for Tunisian Jews, who are still shaken from a May shooting at the Ghriba Synagogue in Djerba, the oldest in Africa. (Photo showing damage to Tomb of Rabbi Yousef al-Maarabi at El Hamma synagogue via RadioJ)

North Africa

Shock, anger follow North Africa disasters

The death toll from catastrophic flooding in northeast Libya continues to climb, with reported numbers now ranging as high as 12,000—and thousands still unaccounted for. People across Libya have stepped up to help, sending convoys of aid across the politically divided country and opening their homes to strangers. Meanwhile, anger is spreading about why two dams in the port city of Derna—which collapsed under the weight of flooding, leading to the destruction of entire neighborhoods—were allowed to decay. There have also been accusations that authorities ignored warnings about the severity of the storm, contributing to the massive death toll. Similar charges are heard in Morocco after a deadly earthquake struck in mountains south of Marrakesh, with the government accused of bottle-necking relief efforts to the marginal area. (Map: USGS via DirectRelief)