Panafrican News Agency

Libyan newspapers focus on resurgence of terrorist threats

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Libyan newspapers have questioned the significance of the resurgence of terrorist threat in the country after the car bomb hit Sebha in the south.

They also highlighted the differences between Parliament and the High Council of State, a consultative assembly, on delays in adopting a constitutional basis for the 24 December elections, which is a risk to the holding of the vote.

The Libyan press reported on the situation of displaced persons and refugees through the action of the European Union delegation, which published some statistics. 

Under the headline: "The explosion in Sebha, another face of tension in the Sahel countries", Al-Wassat newspaper reported that the Libyan authorities and those of several countries have raised their level of alert in view of the sensitive nature of the timing of the terrorist act in Sebha, about 800 km south of Tripoli, as an attempt to undermine the political process and hinder the holding of the elections, which requires urgent unification of the army.

The newspaper added that this situation comes on the back of rapid security developments on Libya's weak southern region - the Sahel and West Africa - after the alleged death of Abu Bakr Shekou, head of the terrorist Boko Haram organization, which threatens to revive dormant cells of jihadist groups.

The claim by Daesh of the suicide attack that targeted a security checkpoint in Sebha with a car bomb, killing two security officers and injuring five others, prompted, according to the newspaper, the mobilization of the organs of the Presidential Council, the government and the Libyan general intelligence.

The newspaper said that observers of Libyan affairs believed that the suicide bombing in Sebha was a message from the terrorist organization to prove its existence, to disrupt efforts to organise elections in Libya before the end of this year, and to destabilise the country. 

This is especially so since the remnants of the organization dispersed in the south after their defeat in Sirte, and before that, the eastern region, limiting its activity in this area with dormant cells that wake up periodically to carry out armed operations.

Observers have attributed the terrorist organization's continued activity in the south to its alliance with armed smuggling gangs that take advantage of tensions in neighbouring countries to provide smuggled weapons to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda in the Greater Sahara, in return for the protection it provides them, the newspaper said.

Al-Wassat newspaper pointed to the Islamic State's terrorist activities in Burkina Faso, where it carried out a "bloody massacre" that the country has not seen since 2015, when gunmen attacked a remote village near the border with Niger, killing over 130 civilians.

There is also serious security unrest in neighbouring Chad following the assassination of President Idriss Déby Itno by rebels believed to have come from southern Libya.

Mali, where thousands of French and British troops are deployed, has seen a second coup in nine months.

Mali has since 2014 been involved in the G5 Sahel military group, along with Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad, the newspaper recalled, adding that this means that joint military efforts to fight terrorism in the region have been frozen indefinitely.

The newspaper cited the American Enterprise Institute's Centre for Critical Threats, which revealed in its May report the fragility and grievances that have led to the rise of jihadist groups in North Africa.

It noted that rebel movements in Libya are active but contained and terrorist attacks have declined throughout the region, but the political and security crisis in Libya has created opportunities for the activity of these groups.

It is likely that extreme instability or collapse in any North African country will increase their threats, it said.

The Afrigatenews newspaper echoed an announcement by the European Union (EU) Mission in Libya that there were 217,000 people displaced in Libya as a result of the conflict, indicating that it had also recorded the presence of 43,000 refugees and asylum seekers.

The electronic newspaper said that the European Mission reported that Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), refugees, and communities hosting them are in need of some form of assistance or support in the resettlement operation.

Returning to the issue of elections, Al-Wassat newspaper said that with barely 200 days to the 24 December general elections, the debate between Parliament and the High Council of State on the parliament's approval of the 2021 budget, has dominated the country's political scene, postponing the decision to decide on the constitutional basis for the elections, raising questions in many Libyan circles as to who is obstructing the elections.

About two weeks have passed since the United Nations made an explicit request to Parliament and the State Council to clarify the constitutional basis and legislation governing the elections before 15-20 June, following the failure of the Dialogue Forum to reach a consensus on the legal basis on which the elections are held, the newspaper said.

-0- PANA BY/IS/MTA/MA 13June2021