A Sudanese official admits UAE funded young Sudanese to fight in Libya

The head of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Minni Arko Minawi, approved the entry of his movement’s forces into Libya, spurred by the UAE’s funding to recruit Sudanese youths to fight as mercenaries for the militia of UAE’s mercenary Khalifa Haftar.

“I acknowledge that we have forces in Libya, but not for the Libyan war,” Minawi said in a press statement.

He added that “young people in the refugee camp are smuggled to Europe and were recruited in the ongoing war in Libya. Most of these youths were from Darfur. The government must solve the problem of these young people.”

Last month, Human Rights Watch’s report condemned UAE’s regime of deceiving young Sudanese and sending them to fight in Libya.

The organization said that the Emirati company, Black Shield, for security services, had contracted with 270 Sudanese youths to work in the UAE as security guards. However, the young men were surprised to send them to Libya to fight as militias for war criminal Khalifa Haftar.

The organization quoted the young men saying: “Upon our arrival in Abu Dhabi in September 2019, our passports and mobile phones were confiscated. And then we were subjected to military training, then transferred without our knowledge to a military compound in Ras Lanuf, Libya, where armed Haftar fighters were present.”

The young men asserted that they had been deceived, which exposed them to becoming potential military targets in the Libyan war. In its investigation, the international organization presented documents confirming the UAE’s condemnation of recruiting mercenaries and sending them to fight in Libya.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that hundreds of mercenaries from the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement joined the fighting in Libya at the end of December and became part of the forces of the retired Libyan Major General Khalifa Haftar.

Euro-Med Monitor said in a press statement that the number of Sudanese mercenaries in Libya had reached nearly 3,000. These fighters committed horrific violations of human rights; participated in the killing of Libyan civilians; took part in smuggling migrants across the border; and secured oil fields and detention centres.

Euro-Med Monitor indicated that a large number of these mercenaries have previous experience in fighting, as a result of their participation in the Darfur war.

Euro-Med Monitor said that despite the arms embargo imposed by the United Nations, including the provision of Armed Mercenary Personnel Resolution 1970 of 2011, Sudan is still clearly violating this embargo. It continues to provide military support to the parties to the conflict in Libya, which means a surge of violations against defenceless civilians. The group noted that this is ensured by the statement of a Sudanese official, who acknowledged his country’s contribution to 50% of the military efforts in Libya.

Euro-Med Monitor explained that it had documented testimonies of Sudanese fighters in Libya in which they spoke of joining the Haftar forces, the weapons they had, and the small material return that they got. They clarified that after they arrived in Libya, they had been put in a prison-like camp, and were given the choice of joining the military or being imprisoned.

According to A. A, one of the mercenaries fighting with Haftar in Gharyan, who came from the city of Geneina in the centre of West Darfur State in Sudan, he came to Libya to fight for 1,000 Sudanese pounds per month ($22), indicating that he and more than 25 Individuals were taken to Libya through the desert.

As for A. M., and M. A., of the Sudanese Janjaweed forces, they came with a group of troops from Sudan through Chad to the city of Benghazi in eastern Libya through Sirte and then Gharyan, to join Haftar forces to the South of Tripoli, under the command of Abd al-Salam al-Hassi of the Haftar forces.

A. M., and M. A., of the Sudanese Janjaweed forces, they came with a group of forces from Sudan through Chad to the city of Benghazi in eastern Libya through Sirte and then Gharyan, to join Haftar forces to the South of Tripoli, under the command of Abd al-Salam al-Hassi of the Haftar forces.

A. Sh., a mercenary from the Janjaweed forces, said that in June 2019, he arrived in an area in Gharyan, which he described as a military base. He and a group of his colleagues got prepared to fight to the south of Tripoli, but he added that the forces of the Government of National Accord succeeded in launching a surprise attack and reached them in Gharyan, killing 3 of his colleagues.

Mercenary A. S. from Sudan said that he came to Libya about a month ago to fight alongside the Haftar forces, explaining that he earned 1,000 Sudanese pounds a month and sometimes every two months.

A recent report by the Panel of Experts of the International Sanctions Committee imposed on Libya revealed that 1,000 Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces were sent to eastern Libya last July, and were stationed in the Jufra region in southern Libya.

Euro-Med Monitor pointed out that the UAE Embassy in Khartoum had sent a letter in May 2019 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Republic of Sudan, requesting diplomatic permission for two C130 + G17 planes belonging to the UAE Armed Forces to land at Geneina Airport to the west of Sudan, to transfer members of the Sudanese forces, which makes the UAE the direct responsible for violations committed by those forces in Libya.

Euro-Med Monitor said that the UAE’s sending Sudanese mercenaries and mercenaries of other nationalities is “a disgraceful act that calls for accountability,” calling on the UN Committee of Experts to work on investigating the crimes committed in Libya and identifying the international parties’ responsibility in the conflict, which would pave the road for bringing those involved to justice.

Euro-Med Monitor pointed out that Article (5) of the International Convention against the Recruitment of Mercenaries prohibited states from recruiting, using, financing or training mercenaries, and obliged them to prohibit these activities, and stipulated the duty of the states party to the Convention to punish those committing this crime by imposing “appropriate penalties that take into account the serious nature of these crimes. ”

he retired Libyan Major General Khalifa Haftar had announced a “military operation” since the fourth of last April, to “control the capital, Tripoli” from the hand of the internationally recognized Libyan Government of National Accord.

The retired Libyan Major General Khalifa Hifter had announced a military operation since the fourth of last April to take control of the capital Tripoli from the hands of the internationally recognized government of National Accord. Violent clashes broke out after the attack between the two parties, killing and injuring thousands, causing massive damage to the infrastructure, health facilities including some hospitals and schools, endangering the lives of about one million and 200,000 civilians in Tripoli, and displace” I gotta more than 100,000 civilians from their homes.