Libya has been decimated by the war that broke out last winter, where a dozen international leaders traveled to Berlin to discuss peace options. Despite many of the participants advocating for a stop to the violence, it was themselves that fueled Libya's raging conflicts.
According to The New York Times, on January 19, several leaders gathered for a photoshoot with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany after signing an agreement, which has involved nations to respect Libya's arms embargo.
Transporting destruction
At least five cargo airplanes were seen flying above North Africa and heading towards the Libyan battlefield during the event. The aircraft carried powerful ammunition and devastating weapons from the United Arab Emirates and Russia.
A confidential report contains the details of the secretive, embargo-busting flights which is scheduled to be presented to a Security Council panel on Friday. The breaches are common in Libya, where United Nations officials call similar embargos a joke.
However, a large number of violations so far this year, along with the amount of highly-advanced weaponry that has begun circulating within the country, are causing several international entities to express their concern.
Investigators used flight data, ship records, and other tools they can access and found that the appalling infringement of international leaders who proudly disregard the embargo has reached new heights.
The United Arab Emirates sent out four of the five cargo planes that traveled to Libya on January 19. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the state's leader, was seen smiling while having lunch with Germany's Merkel before the peace conference. Not only and Russia and Egypt but also commander Khalifa Hifter of Libya are supporting the Emirates in the war.
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Russia owns the fifth cargo plane bound for Libya, which is only one of almost 350 Russian military supply flights in the past nine months, which have bolstered its operating force. The troops consist of both Russian and Syrian mercenaries, which have grown to more than 5,000 fighters, says the latest American estimates.
Continuous internal conflicts
Interviews with officials have confirmed the UN report, which comes during a time of tense political instability in Libya and suggests the country is heading towards a new, and potentially more destructive series of conflicts.
The Libyan nation has continuously been ravaged by devastating internal conflicts that killed thousands of people since 2011 when Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's rule was overthrown, as reported by Aljazeera.
In the country, Sunday is known as the International Day of the Disappeared. August 30 of every year is when citizens pay their respects to their brethren who have gone missing and their effects on the families and loved ones that were left behind.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has recorded at least 44,000 missing people across the African continent. What surprises analysts is that more than half of the recorded missing people were only children when they disappeared.
A missing person is only recorded by the ICRC when one of their family members file an open case with the organization. The agency's regional adviser for the disappeared and their families left behind in Africa, Sophie Marsac, said that the caseload is a drop in the ocean.
The ICRC has registered over 1,600 people as disappeared cases. Still, records from the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) continuously take note of people who have gone missing, tally that more than 10,000 people have not been seen in Libya.
