Some countries are jeopardizing the lives of over a million Tripoli residents by exporting weapons to Libya in violation of a UN arms embargo, to which the UN Security Council must respond by taking urgent measures to preserve the embargo's integrity, a prominent international watchdog said on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd July, 2019) Some countries are jeopardizing the lives of over a million Tripoli residents by exporting weapons to Libya in violation of a UN arms embargo, to which the UN Security Council must respond by taking urgent measures to preserve the embargo's integrity, a prominent international watchdog said on Wednesday.
The UN Security Council imposed a comprehensive embargo on arms deliveries to and from Libya in February 2011. The decision was made in response to the country's repeated violations of human rights, including the government's crackdown on peaceful demonstrators.
"The UN arms embargo is meant to protect civilians in Libya. But Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, among others, are blatantly flouting it by providing sophisticated armoured vehicles, drones, guided missiles and other weapons. The UN Security Council must urgently take steps to enforce the embargo, and the warring parties must respect international humanitarian law and stop recklessly endangering civilians," Magdalena Mughrabi, the deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Amnesty International, said as quoted in the watchdog's press release.
Libya has been suffering from unrest since 2011, when its long-time leader, Muammar Gaddafi, was overthrown and killed. The country is still split between two rival governments, with an elected parliament, supported by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), governing the country's east, and the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) ruling in the west.
The situation escalated on April 4 when Haftar ordered his troops to advance on Tripoli to free it from what he called terrorists. As a result, the LNA gained control over several cities near Tripoli. On April 7, the GNA announced the Volcano of Rage counteroffensive to repulse the advances of the LNA.
