Haftar: Failure of Dialogue Compels Libyans to Determine Fate

Libyan General Khalifa Haftar speaking during his meeting with the Tunisian president on September 18, 2017 in Tunisia. (AFP)
Libyan General Khalifa Haftar speaking during his meeting with the Tunisian president on September 18, 2017 in Tunisia. (AFP)
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Haftar: Failure of Dialogue Compels Libyans to Determine Fate

Libyan General Khalifa Haftar speaking during his meeting with the Tunisian president on September 18, 2017 in Tunisia. (AFP)
Libyan General Khalifa Haftar speaking during his meeting with the Tunisian president on September 18, 2017 in Tunisia. (AFP)

General Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), considered that the ongoing dialogue in Tunis is the only solution for the Libyan problems and in case the dialogue fails to find political solutions then doors will be wide-open for the Libyan people to determine their fate.

In two separate meetings, Haftar met officers and soldiers from the LNA pointing out that the unity of the army was formed in the field and that the victory was achieved thanks to all sons and fighters of the army.

He announced that his forces now have control over the majority of the Libyan territory, with only 30 square kilometers remaining.

Haftar said there were no “indications” that the ongoing UN-sponsored dialogue could be the solution to the current political crisis in the country, pointing out that the door of other alternatives approved by the people remains wide open.

“The army and all security services will answer to the wishes of the people,” he added.

For its part, ISIS Fighting Operation Room (IFOR) in Sabratha denied the figures provided by Haftar because the army has no control over many regions in the west of Libya.

The Supreme Council of the Libyan Tribes and Cities, however, called on fighters and civilians to clear their cities and villages from militias, adding that the cohesion between the armed forces and people in Sabratha led to liberating it from terrorist gangs.

In its statement, the council added that the successive governments failed to protect the people from grave violations and horrible crimes against children, elders, and women that are taking place every day.

He added that throughout seven years, these governments couldn’t prevent the exhaustion of the Libya’s wealth.



UN: More than 1.3 Million Return to Homes in Sudan

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
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UN: More than 1.3 Million Return to Homes in Sudan

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)

More than 1.3 million people who fled the fighting in Sudan have headed home, the United Nations said Friday, pleading for greater international aid to help returnees rebuild shattered lives.

Over a million internally displaced people (IDPs) have returned to their homes in recent months, UN agencies said.

A further 320,000 refugees have crossed back into Sudan this year, mainly from neighboring Egypt and South Sudan.

While fighting has subsided in the "pockets of relative safety" that people are beginning to return to, the situation remains highly precarious, the UN said.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The fighting has killed tens of thousands.

The RSF lost control of the capital, Khartoum, in March and the regular army now controls Sudan's center, north and east.

In a joint statement, the UN's IOM migration agency, UNHCR refugee agency and UNDP development agency called for an urgent increase in financial support to pay for the recovery as people begin to return, with humanitarian operations "massively underfunded".

Sudan has 10 million IDPs, including 7.7 million forced from their homes by the current conflict, they said.

More than four million have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

- 'Living nightmare' -

Sudan is "the largest humanitarian catastrophe facing our world and also the least remembered", the IOM's regional director Othman Belbeisi, speaking from Port Sudan, told a media briefing in Geneva.

He said 71 percent of returns had been to Al-Jazira state, with eight percent to Khartoum.

Other returnees were mostly heading for Sennar state.

Both Al-Jazira and Sennar are located southeast of the capital.

"We expect 2.1 million to return to Khartoum by the end of this year but this will depend on many factors, especially the security situation and the ability to restore services," Belbeisi said.

With the RSF holding nearly all of the western Darfur region, Kordofan in the south has become the war's main battleground in recent weeks.

He said the "vicious, horrifying civil war continues to take lives with impunity", imploring the warring factions to put down their guns.

"The war has unleashed hell for millions and millions of ordinary people," he said.

"Sudan is a living nightmare. The violence needs to stop."

- 'Massive' UXO contamination -

After visiting Khartoum and the Egyptian border, Mamadou Dian Balde, the UNHCR's regional refugee coordinator for the Sudan crisis, said people were coming back to destroyed public infrastructure, making rebuilding their lives extremely challenging.

Those returning from Egypt were typically coming back "empty handed", he said, speaking from Nairobi.

Luca Renda, UNDP's resident representative in Sudan, warned of further cholera outbreaks in Khartoum if broken services were not restored.

"What we need is for the international community to support us," he said.

Renda said around 1,700 wells needed rehabilitating, while at least six Khartoum hospitals and at least 35 schools needed urgent repairs.

He also sounded the alarm on the "massive" amount of unexploded ordnance littering the city and the need for decontamination.

He said anti-personnel mines had also been found in at least five locations in Khartoum.

"It will take years to fully decontaminate the city," he said, speaking from Port Sudan.