A report to the Security Council by a panel of UN human rights experts finds that foreign fighters and private military companies are responsible for grave abuses in Libya—especially naming Russia's Wagner Group [16]. The report was classified "confidential," but a copy was leaked to the Associated Press [17]. It finds that both Turkish-backed militias loyal to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA [18]) and the Wagner Group, apparently contracted by eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar [19], have employed mercenaries who were veterans of the internal war in Syria. The GNA-aligned militias are implicated in abuses of migrants, who have been "regularly subjected to acts of slavery, rape and torture." The Wager Group is accused of planting unmarked anti-personnel mines on the southern periphery of Tripoli, when the city was besieged by Haftar's forces from April 2019 to an October 2020 ceasefire [21].
The Wager Group contingent has now retreated with the bulk of Haftar's forces to the port city of Sirte (Surt), east of Tripoli, which has become the new front line [22].
The report also finds that Chadian rebel groups operate [23] from Libyan territory, and that Sudanese fighters have been recruited [24] by Haftar.
The Wagner Group portrays itself as a private military contractor, and the Kremlin denies any link to the outfit. But the US State Department identifies [25] Wagner's financer as Yevgeny Prigozhin [26], an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. (More at EuroNews [27], The Guardian [28], HRW [29])
Russia and China blocked official release of a similar report to the Security Council in September 2020, documenting violations of the Libya arms embargo by foreign powers. (AP [30])
