Before the aggression on Tripoli, the Libyans were on an appointment with the All-Inclusive National Forum in the city of Ghadames to agree on a road map to end the transitional stages by peaceful means and the peaceful transfer of power after years of preparation under the auspices of the United Nations Mission to Libya, but Haftar’s greed and arrogance brought the country into a war that lasted more than a year.
After his resounding loss of the war and his failure to rule the country with an iron fist, Haftar forcefully returned to sit at the negotiating table, and again the meeting will take place in Ghadames, which is the first meeting of the 5 + 5 committee in Libya after the signing of the ceasefire agreement in Geneva on 23 October.
Ghadames Forum and the treachery of Haftar
The former head of the United Nations Mission to Libya, Ghassan Salama, announced in March 2019 that from April 14 to 16 of the same year would be set as the date for the convening of the inclusive national forum, which is the last item in the road map proposed by the United Nations more than a year ago to resolve the Libyan crisis.
Days before the meeting, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, arrived in Tripoli, where he affirmed his full commitment to support the political process led by the Libyans towards achieving peace, stability, democracy and prosperity for the Libyan people.
However, Haftar had another opinion and announced on April 4, 2019, and while Guterres was in Tripoli, the launch of what he called the operation to liberate Tripoli and the “Alfatih Almoubin”, attacking the capital of the country, which is inhabited by nearly two million people, with all kinds of heavy weapons, and with air cover from the countries supporting him, led by the Emirates, Egypt and France, which provided him with special forces and advanced Javelin missiles.
Resounding Defeat
After more than a year of his aggression, the army forces took control of the entire western region on June 6, after expelling the last remnants of Haftar’s militia and his mercenaries from their last stronghold in the city of Tarhuna.
During the period of the aggression, the Libyan army forces were able to kill hundreds of mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Company, the mercenaries of the Sudanese Janjaweed, and from Chad and Syria, and the number of Haftar militia’s dead has reached more than 7,000, according to Haftar’s spokesman Ahmed Al-Mismari, and it captured hundreds of them, some of them minors, less than eighteen years old.
The Libyan Air Defense Forces shot down more than ten aircraft between jet fighters and drones of the aggressor militias, and destroyed dozens of Emirati armored vehicles, known as Tiger, and captured many of them.
Tragedies and damages
Haftar’s aggression has caused countless tragedies. A video report issued by the Libyan Army’s “Volcano of Anger” operation room last September stated that “the aggression killed 238 civilians and 44 children, in addition to forcing 57,000 families to flee, causing 342,000 displaced people, including at least 90,000 children.
The aggression also caused many damages to the infrastructure, as it caused 306 schools to stop working, 800 teachers were displaced, 39 million school books were burned, 14 schools were severely damaged, 200,000 students were displaced, and studies stopped in 9 municipalities.
Mateiga airport, the only airport in the capital, had its share of this aggression, as its bombing killed 22 civilians, damaged 28 airport facilities and 52 civilian vehicles, bombed the airport runway 13 times, and hit 7 civilian aircraft.
Corpses and graves
And this October, a report of the General Authority for Search and Identification of Missing Persons monitored the recovery of 102 bodies found in mass graves in Tarhuna and southern Tripoli, since June 5, after the discovery of more than 12 mass graves in the city that was controlled by Haftar’s militias.
Geneva Agreement
Since the start of the first round of the military committee talks between the GNA delegation and the Haftar militia delegation, following the adoption of the road map to politically resolve the crisis at the Berlin conference last January.
On October 23, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya announced that the Libyan parties had reached a permanent ceasefire agreement in all parts of Libya requiring the withdrawal of all military units to their camps and the exit of mercenaries from Libya within a period of three months, restructuring of the Petroleum Facilities Guard, and the opening of All roads and crossings between regions and cities in the country, in addition to the exchange of prisoners and detainees.
Return to Ghadames
The failure of Haftar’s aggression, which lasted more than a year, causing hundreds of casualties, material losses, oil closures and other disasters that he dragged on the country, made him return to Ghadames, which he rejected for the first time, as the mission announced the launch of the fifth round of (5 + 5) committee talks next Monday for the first time in Libya, in the city where the National All-Inclusive Forum was to be held prior to Haftar’s failed hostility, and his dream of ascending to power in Libya by force of arms and with unlimited support from countries led by the Emirates was broken
