After the NATO-backed rebellion ousted and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, Libya fell in the grip of competing armed factions seeking control. Along with the security vacuum that prevailed in Libya, The result was the ever-expanding control of Islamist militants and the spread of fighters, arms and explosives accrose Liby’s borders into Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
The North African state remains in chaos, mostly split now between Haftar’s forces in the east and the UN-recognised government in Tripoli. Haftar’s forces launched an offensive on the capital in April.
“The international community is responsible for what is happening to us through its disastrous decision to intervene in Libya,” Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou said in December, referring to the 2011 NATO campaign.
“Libya is African, we cannot solve the Libyan problem by keeping the AU on the sidelines,” he continued.
Chad President Idriss Deby said solving Sahel violence was directly linked to ending Libya’s instability.
“Libya’s chaos… remains the main source of destabilisation for the whole of the Sahel,” he said in Rome in December.
The Jihandist attacks of 2019 lead to the killing of 4,000 people in Burkina, Mali and Niger, despite the presence of several thousand French troops, a UN peacekeeping mission in Mali and the G5 Sahel cooperation among the armies of five regional nations.
“Africa is looking to get more of a hearing now with the deterioration of the security situation in the Sahel,” a Western diplomat said.
An emissary of the Congolese head of state this month travelled to Algeria, a key country in negotiations between Libyan rivals, to discuss how to “energise” the peace process, according to the Algerian presidency.
The Algeria talks also discussed the role of AU on reviving Libya’s peace process. Algiers has been long been involved in negotiations with Libyan factions. Nevertheless, the UN is organising the Berlin talks and takes a central role in negotiations.
“This is and remains a process that is in UN hands and under UN leadership. So this has meant that the AU has been sidelined,” said Claudia Gazzini at International Crisis Group. “The UN does not necessarily see the AU as a decisive voice in the process.”
The AU is also “divided” over how to handle Libya, one Niger official source said.
“Egypt does not want the AU to take charge of this,” as it backs Haftar as sees Libya as part of its domestic security border, the source said.
To complicate that situation further, the new international players; Russia backs Haftar while Turkey, an ally of the Tripoli government, recently agreed to send Turkish soldiers to Libya to support Sarraj.
Haftar’s offensive on Tripoli since April is just the latest wave of fighting to wrack Libya since 2011, which resulted in the killing of more than 280 civilians and 2,000 combatants. And despite the acts of violence especially since Sunday, Haftar has so far refused to sign a more permanent cease-fire deal.
“This involvement of the new players further complicates the Libyan crisis,” warned Ibrahim Yacouba, a former Niger foreign minister.
