How Have Internationally Sanctioned Suspects Reemerged in Libya?

An armored personnel vehicle drives down a street in the Libyan coastal city of Surman on April 13, 2020. (AFP)
An armored personnel vehicle drives down a street in the Libyan coastal city of Surman on April 13, 2020. (AFP)
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How Have Internationally Sanctioned Suspects Reemerged in Libya?

An armored personnel vehicle drives down a street in the Libyan coastal city of Surman on April 13, 2020. (AFP)
An armored personnel vehicle drives down a street in the Libyan coastal city of Surman on April 13, 2020. (AFP)

The sudden appearance of Ahmed al-Dabashi, a prominent human trafficker on an international blacklist, in Libya after a two-year absence has raised many questions. Dabashi, also known as "Ammu", had emerged in the western city of Sabratha, days after the Government of National Accord (GNA), captured it.

The United Nations Security Council had in June 2018 imposed sanctions against four Libyans, including Dabashi, for human trafficking. Since then, he had disappeared from Libya, until last week, when he was seen with other wanted suspects among the GNA forces.

His emergence coincided with Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari's announcement that members of the al-Qaeda, ISIS and Ansar al-Sharia extremist groups had taken part in the attack launched by the GNA against Sabratha, Surman and several other cities on the western coast.

Head of a research and studies institute in Libya, Jamal Shalouf, told Asharq Al-Awsat that internationally wanted fugitives are fighting alongside the GNA. They include Dabashi and Abdulrahman al-Miladi, also known as "al-Bidja".

He revealed that some 400 prisoners have been released from Surman jail, according to GNA justice ministry estimates. Some of the released inmates include suspects charged with supporting ISIS in Sabratha.

"Many of the prisoners have a long history of kidnapping, murder and armed robbery," he added.

The wanted international fugitives will try to "impose themselves" on the scene in Libya through reprisals against the people, especially LNA supporters, warned Shalouf.

Mismari had on Sunday announced that Saleh al-Dabashi, Ahmed's brother, was arrested by the LNA in al-Twaisha region south of Tripoli.

Saleh is a major human trafficker in the region and he was detained along with several mercenaries and Libyan fugitives.

Head of of the Republican Coalition party Ezzeddine Aguil said the emergence Ammu, or the "emperor of human trafficking" as he described him, "clearly means that several European countries were supporting militias in order to stem the flow of illegal migrants towards them."

He cited several media reports throughout the past two years that spoke of him receiving finds from Italian intelligence to stop the trafficking of people from Libya to Europe.

A spokesman for the GNA military operation against the LNA, Mustafa al-Majei dismissed claims that the government forces had released ISIS prisoners.

"Such allegations are only meant to deflect from the defeat," he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He instead accused parties affiliated with the east-based government of releasing over 300 prisoners "in order to spread chaos" in liberated cities.

"We welcomed a United Nations investigation into the incident and we have cooperated with it to reveal the truth to all," he added.

"We do not harbor wanted terrorists," he stressed, saying all the LNA did was circulate photos of "Ammu" and adding that he is wanted on fuel smuggling, not terrorism, charges.



Sudan's Relentless War: A 70-Year Cycle of Conflict


Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (left) and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, pictured during their alliance to oust Omar al-Bashir in 2019 (AFP)
Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (left) and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, pictured during their alliance to oust Omar al-Bashir in 2019 (AFP)
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Sudan's Relentless War: A 70-Year Cycle of Conflict


Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (left) and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, pictured during their alliance to oust Omar al-Bashir in 2019 (AFP)
Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (left) and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, pictured during their alliance to oust Omar al-Bashir in 2019 (AFP)

While world conflicts dominate headlines, Sudan’s deepening catastrophe is unfolding largely out of sight; a brutal war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and flattened entire cities and regions.

More than a year into the conflict, some observers question whether the international community has grown weary of Sudan’s seemingly endless cycles of violence. The country has endured nearly seven decades of civil war, and what is happening now is not an exception, but the latest chapter in a bloody history of rebellion and collapse.

The first of Sudan’s modern wars began even before the country gained independence from Britain. In 1955, army officer Joseph Lagu led the southern “Anyanya” rebellion, named after a venomous snake, launching a guerrilla war that would last until 1972.

A peace agreement brokered by the World Council of Churches and Ethiopia’s late Emperor Haile Selassie ended that conflict with the signing of the Addis Ababa Accord.

But peace proved short-lived. In 1983, then-president Jaafar Nimeiry reignited tensions by announcing the imposition of Islamic Sharia law, known as the “September Laws.” The move prompted the rise of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), led by John Garang, and a renewed southern insurgency that raged for more than two decades, outliving Nimeiry’s regime.

Under Omar al-Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 military coup, the war took on an Islamist tone. His government declared “jihad” and mobilized civilians in support of the fight, but failed to secure a decisive victory.

The conflict eventually gave way to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, better known as the Naivasha Agreement, which was brokered in Kenya and granted South Sudan the right to self-determination.

In 2011, more than 95% of South Sudanese voted to break away from Sudan, giving birth to the world’s newest country, the Republic of South Sudan. The secession marked the culmination of decades of war, which began with demands for a federal system and ended in full-scale conflict. The cost: over 2 million lives lost, and a once-unified nation split in two.

But even before South Sudan’s independence became reality, another brutal conflict had erupted in Sudan’s western Darfur region in 2003. Armed rebel groups from the region took up arms against the central government, accusing it of marginalization and neglect. What followed was a ferocious counterinsurgency campaign that drew global condemnation and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.

As violence escalated, the United Nations deployed one of its largest-ever peacekeeping missions, the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), in a bid to stem the bloodshed.

Despite multiple peace deals, including the Juba Agreement signed in October 2020 following the ousting of long-time Islamist ruler, Bashir, fighting never truly ceased.

The Darfur war alone left more than 300,000 people dead and millions displaced. The International Criminal Court charged Bashir and several top officials, including Ahmed Haroun and Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein, with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Alongside the southern conflict, yet another war erupted in 2011, this time in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan and the Blue Nile region. The fighting was led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM–N), a group composed largely of northern fighters who had sided with the South during the earlier civil war under John Garang.

The conflict broke out following contested elections marred by allegations of fraud, and Khartoum’s refusal to implement key provisions of the 2005 Naivasha Agreement, particularly those related to “popular consultations” in the two regions. More than a decade later, war still grips both areas, with no lasting resolution in sight.

Then came April 15, 2023. A fresh war exploded, this time in the heart of the capital, Khartoum, pitting the Sudanese Armed Forces against the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Now entering its third year, the conflict shows no signs of abating.

According to international reports, the war has killed more than 150,000 people and displaced around 13 million, the largest internal displacement crisis on the planet. Over 3 million Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries.

Large swathes of the capital lie in ruins, and entire states have been devastated. With Khartoum no longer viable as a seat of power, the government and military leadership have relocated to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan.

Unlike previous wars, Sudan’s current conflict has no real audience. Global pressure on the warring factions has been minimal. Media coverage is sparse. And despite warnings from the United Nations describing the crisis as “the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe,” Sudan's descent into chaos remains largely ignored by the international community.