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Libya’s Mangoush... from Lawyer to Carrying out Dbeibah’s Foreign Policy

Libya's Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush attends a meeting by Libya's neighbors as part of international efforts to reach a political settlement to the country's conflict, in the Algerian capital Algiers, on August 30, 2021. (AFP)
Libya's Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush attends a meeting by Libya's neighbors as part of international efforts to reach a political settlement to the country's conflict, in the Algerian capital Algiers, on August 30, 2021. (AFP)
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Libya’s Mangoush... from Lawyer to Carrying out Dbeibah’s Foreign Policy

Libya's Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush attends a meeting by Libya's neighbors as part of international efforts to reach a political settlement to the country's conflict, in the Algerian capital Algiers, on August 30, 2021. (AFP)
Libya's Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush attends a meeting by Libya's neighbors as part of international efforts to reach a political settlement to the country's conflict, in the Algerian capital Algiers, on August 30, 2021. (AFP)

Najla al-Mangoush first became known in Libya during the February 17, 2011, revolution when she became involved in the media coverage of the unrest in Benghazi city. At the time, she was in contact with the foreign press to inform them about the developments taking place in her country.

Mangoush, a trained lawyer and professor in criminal law, was not a professional journalist, but she was eager to report about the “revolt” and delivering Libya’s voice to the world, especially after the suspension of internet services in Benghazi at the time.

Now, Mangoush, who was Libya’s first ever female foreign minister, is facing accusations of treason after she met with her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen in Italy last week.

Mangoush, 53, was born to a cardiologist father. She is now wanted in Libya for violating the 1957 law on the boycott of Israel. Anyone found to have violated the law would face a minimum jail term of three years and a maximum of ten and a fine of no more than 5,000 dinars.

Reports said Mangoush has since fled Libya to Türkiye on board a jet belonging to the Government of National Unity (GNU), headed by Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah.

Dbeibah did not await the findings of a probe and quickly dismissed Mangoush, making the announcement during a visit to the Palestinian embassy in Tripoli to express his solidarity with the “Palestinian cause”.

After studying to become a lawyer at Benghazi University (then Garyounis University), she graduated from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia and holds a PhD in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University.

Mangoush was appointed foreign minister in Dbeibah’s government in March 2021.

Her meeting with the Israeli foreign minister is not the first time that she had found herself in hot water. In 2021, she was suspended and referred to investigation over statements that her government was ready to turn over Lockerbie bombing suspect Abu Agila Al-Marimi to the United States. The suspect was eventually handed to the US and little has since emerged about the probe with Mangoush.

Observers said Mangoush enjoyed a positive career as a foreign minister and has forged strong ties with several countries, including the US and western nations. They remarked, however, she was only a mouthpiece of Dbeibah’s foreign policy.

In March 22, the US State Department granted Mangoush the International Women of Courage Award. Washington noted that she was Libya’s first female foreign minister and the fifth female to ever assume the post in Africa.

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Sudan's Famine-stricken Zamzam Camp Hit by Devastating Floods

A handout photograph, shot in January 2024, shows a woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan. MSF/Mohamed Zakaria/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A handout photograph, shot in January 2024, shows a woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan. MSF/Mohamed Zakaria/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Sudan's Famine-stricken Zamzam Camp Hit by Devastating Floods

A handout photograph, shot in January 2024, shows a woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan. MSF/Mohamed Zakaria/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A handout photograph, shot in January 2024, shows a woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan. MSF/Mohamed Zakaria/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

A famine-stricken camp in Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region is facing a "significant" new influx of displaced people while floods threaten to contaminate water and sanitation facilities, according to satellite imagery published on Friday.

The findings from Yale Humanitarian Research Lab show that toilets and nine out of 13 water points have been inundated at the Zamzam camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in North Darfur, raising the risk of cholera and other diseases in an area already facing extreme levels of malnutrition.

The camp, hosting about 500,000 people, has become more crowded as people have fled recent fighting between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which broke out in April 2023.

The images analyzed by the Yale researchers show brown floodwaters submerging outdoor toilets and areas where people queue for water.

"We need water, food, healthcare, and for God to lift this curse from Sudan, nothing more than that," said Duria Abdelrahman, who told Reuters she had received no aid since arriving in the camp. Women were seen cleaning leaves to eat.

Zamzam is the largest IDP camp in Sudan, and some people have lived there for more than two decades.

On Thursday, the world’s global hunger monitor determined that Zamzam is experiencing famine, only the third such assessment since the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, an international food security standard, was established two decades ago

“For humanitarians, our worst-case scenario, what we train for as the sum of all fears, is happening on the ground right now,” said Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab.

“A population already vulnerable due to being food and water deprived, on the move and under siege, now is surrounded by floodwaters that are contaminated with human and animal faeces.”

Zamzam is near al-Fashir, capital of North Darfur and the only significant holdout from the RSF across Darfur. At least 65 people were killed this week as the group besieges the city.

The main hospital is out of service after an RSF attack.

- DIRTY WATER

Zamzam and other areas where more than 300,000 people have fled are controlled by armed groups that are neutral or allied with the government and therefore offer some protection. But they have little food and few services because the army and RSF have prevented assistance from entering.

Residents say they cannot reach farms as RSF soldiers surround the area, while most have no money for the little food that enters markets. The IPC said the Abu Shouk and al-Salam camps in al-Fashir are likely facing similar conditions to Zamzam.

Residents have limited access to fresh water, the Yale researchers said.

“The water is unsafe because it mixes with all the dirt,” Zamzam resident Yahia Ali told Reuters, pointing to brown rainwater collected in a tarp. “And even though it’s dirty we are forced to drink it.”

The Yale researchers used satellite imagery to identify enough standing water at the camp to cover at least 125 soccer pitches. The researchers also documented submerged toilets at Al Salam School 36 for Adolescents and another school compound.

A Reuters eyewitness said newcomers from al-Fashir sheltering in a roofless school had water up to their knees.

In al-Fashir, the Yale researchers documented flooding of hospitals, food and water distribution sites, and markets. The Mawashi Market, where livestock is slaughtered and sold, was also inundated and the researchers called it “a particularly concerning vehicle of contamination”.

As of early July, Sudan had 11,000 cholera cases nationwide, according to the health ministry, although none had been recorded in North Darfur.

Waterborne disease outbreaks occurred in Darfur during a devastating conflict that began in 2003.

Zamzam is one of 14 locations across Sudan where the IPC has said famine is likely, most of them other displacement camps that have seen little aid enter since the latest war began.

“This is not just the situation in Zamzam, but the condition of all the other camps in Darfur, more than 171 camps suffering the same conditions,” said Adam Rojal, spokesman for the Displacement Camps Coordinating Committee, an activist network.