The neighbouring Chadian insurgents have come under airstrikes and an airborne assault by the Libyan National Army.
A significant military campaign to drive out Chadian rebels has been initiated by the Libyan National Army (LNA), which represents one of the nation’s major groups under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
The LNA’s General Command’s press office announced on Friday that rebel gatherings in the southern region of the nation near Chad had been struck by air power. According to the report, Haftar’s soldiers also conducted an airborne assault after the airstrikes in an effort to seize the border.
Ahmad Mismari, a spokesperson for the army, commented on the development and emphasised that the LNA would not permit Libya to serve as a base for any armed formations that “pose a threat to our neighbours or a launching pad for any illegal actions,” but he did not specify which groups he was referring to.
In the southern Murzuq district’s Umm al-Araneb neighbourhood, where more than 2,000 newly constructed homes have been taken over by rebel fighters, the LNA asserts that it attacked a housing complex. Additionally, it was stated that because of regional tensions, local terrorist and criminal organisations have gained strength and the security situation has become more precarious in several regions of North and West Africa.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) threatened to militarily intervene in Niger in order to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum, who was deposed in a coup last month. The LNA voiced these worries in response.
Mahamat Idriss Deby, the interim leader of Chad, visited the Libyan border earlier this month amid reports of attacks by the Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (CCMSR), a rebel organisation based in Chad that has previously fought alongside pro-Haftar forces. CCMSR is a rebel group seeking to overthrow the government and is based in Libya.
In addition, earlier this week, Deby revealed that the Chadian army had resumed hostilities with The Front for Change and Concord (FACT), a militant organisation with ties to Libya that is antagonistic to the N’Djamena government, following the termination of a truce.
Since 2011, when Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown by a coup supported by NATO and eventually killed, Libya has been rife with unrest. The country was divided into groups dominated by the civil war that followed. However, a “permanent ceasefire” brokered by the UN between the LNA and the GNA, which is based in Tripoli, was signed in 2020. However, the accord has been hampered by ongoing delays in holding elections in Libya, which has threatened to rekindle the war.
