Hassan Al-Werfalli (Benghazi, Cairo)
The number of foreign mercenaries fighting in Libya has decreased during the last period, as a result of the Ukrainian crisis, as Kyiv has become a gathering point for fighters and mercenaries who have moved there in various ways.
An expert at the United Nations revealed that the number of foreign mercenaries fighting in Libya has decreased, in part, as a result of the Ukraine crisis.
The British Zambian legal expert, Chaloka Bayani, confirmed that the mercenaries found a market for them elsewhere, in reference to the Ukrainian arena.
On February 27, 2022, the Ukrainian government announced the formation of the “International Corps for the Defense of Ukraine”, made up of foreigners willing to volunteer to fight alongside the Ukrainian army.
The UN expert is collecting evidence of human rights violations in Libya as part of a group of experts commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council. The report submitted by Bayani and his team explained that, despite this, not all foreign fighters have withdrawn from Libya, stressing that the mercenaries are working to prolong the conflict inside the country and may have ignored international rules to protect civilians. The Libyan Joint Military Committee “5 + 5” is working to activate the action plan that the committee set during its meetings in Geneva in October 2021, a plan that needs Libyan political will to activate it with international, regional and international support.
The United Nations welcomed the move by the “5 + 5” committee to sign a long-awaited action plan to get mercenaries and foreign fighters out of Libya, after years of fighting across the oil-rich country.
The head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya at the time, Jan Kubis, described the signing as “another achievement of the 5+5 Joint Military Commission.”
In turn, a member of the Supreme Council of State in Libya Saad bin Sharada confirmed that Libya was greatly affected by the Ukrainian crisis, pointing out that the intensification of the Libyan crisis in light of the conflict between the Western camp on the one hand and the Russian camp on the other, which had a significant impact on Libya. In statements to Al-Ittihad, Ibn Sharada noted the push of Western countries towards holding elections in any way possible, in addition to the increasing pressure they are exerting to get mercenaries out of Libya, amid the polarization between Moscow and the Western camp.
This comes as the Libyan Military Committee continues to work on developing an implementation mechanism for a gradual, balanced and sequential departure of all mercenaries and foreign fighters, and the Committee is holding a series of consultations with international partners concerned with the stability of Libya, in order to seek support and cooperation on the plan.
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