Al-Wefaq government recruits African mercenaries to fight national army

Indiana Khaled

A footage spread by the National Army of Libya has shown four African migrants admitting being recruited to fight alongside Al-Wefaq government to hinder the progress of the country’s army, led by commander Khalifa Haftar.

Armed militias are considered the backbone of Al-Wefaq Government, in order to remain in power and carry out the schemes and aims of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,

The clip that showed a group of foreign mercenaries, who were captured during the Tripoli battles, fighting in the ranks of the armed militias of Al-Wefaq government. They admitted coming from Chad with the aim of working in Libya, before being recruited by the militias with attractive salaries, where one of them said he used to work in Al-Kuraimiya area in Al-Aziziya before someone called him and offered him a second job, with a salary of 3,000 Libyan dinars per month.

The Libyan National Army spokesman, Ahmed Al-Mesmari, has said the one who leads the terrorist operations in Libya is a Turkish man dubbed “Abu Al-Furqan”, and published pictures of him alongside the Turkish president, his intelligence chief, and his defense minister.

He pointed out that the number of Syrian mercenaries that Erdogan brought in amounted to 7500 people, in addition to a thousand Turkish officers and individuals.

He noted that the leader of each mercenary group received a million dollars from the Libyan National Accord Government, stressing that the fate of the terrorists present in Libya is a scenario of two with no third, either killing or imprisonment.

Al-Mesmari explained that Erdogan sends 300 to 400 mercenaries to western Libya every week, and he brought about 2,000 terrorists from Jabhet Al-Nusra and Daesh.

He also pointed out that there were 190 mercenaries who had fled from Libya to Europe, and confirmed that, among the mercenaries’ belongings, Turkey had been found on Syrian-made hallucination pills, as well as the presence of Daesh slogans on the mercenaries ’clothes.

Major-General Reda Yaqoub, an expert on combating international terrorism, says that the mistake currently being made is to describe the current government in Libya as “the government of reconciliation”, so it should be called the outgoing government, according to the Skhirat agreement signed in Morocco on December 17, 2015.

He added in an interview with The Reference that the recruitment of mercenaries represents a threat to the Middle East and Europe, noting that these groups were recruited to fight the Libyan National Army, and it is possible that they would flee to Europe, demanding the necessity of the intervention of the African Union, the European Union and the Arab League against such recruitment.

He also pointed out that the reconciliation government’s cooperation with the Turkish president in bringing militias to Libya through civil aviation is a fraud on the international community, explaining that al-Sarraj claimed that he closed the land and sea borders because of the spread of COVID-19, however, it is in fact a cover for Erdogan to supply the government with militias and weapons.

Dr. Tariq Fahmy, a professor of political science at Cairo University, says that what the reconciliation government does is nothing but what can be called the phenomenon of “private sector armies” or international security companies, which is responsible for recruiting mercenaries and foreigners and sending them to Libya, taking advantage of the health conditions the world is going through with the assistance of Turkey, which has significant experience in the recruitment of “private sector armies.”

Fahmy added, in statements to The Reference that there has been a disturbing polarization of Africans for a long time by private armies companies, which showed the failure of international efforts to control the borders, therefore deterrent laws must be applied by the international community to punish Al-Wefaq government.

Arab and western countries on March 17 called on the Libya’s rival parties to stop ongoing military action in the country in order to allow authorities to respond to the coronavirus.

“The embassies of Algeria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States along with the Delegation of the European Union and the governments of Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates call on all the rival parties in Libya to declare an immediate, humanitarian cessation of hostilities as well as a halt to the continuing transfer of all military equipment and personnel into Libya in order to allow local authorities to respond to the unprecedented public health challenge posed by COVID-19,” a joint statement said.

“We strongly support the efforts of Libyan health authorities across the country as they come together in a spirit of national cohesion and urge them to take all necessary measures to support the health and well-being of all Libyans,” the statement said.