Giuseppe Acconcia
The last one was carried out by the Italian authorities in the port of Gioia Tauro. The flow of weapons is monitored by Washington, which wants to curb the influence of Moscow and Beijing
The supply of weapons from China to Cyrenaica in Libya does not stop. The latest seizure of Chinese drones headed to the North African country occurred in recent days and was carried out by Italian authorities. According to the border police, the drones were registered as equipment for wind turbines. Unassembled parts of drones were found in six different containers in the port of Gioia Tauro. The seizure occurred as part of international commitments to respect the embargo on arms directed to Libya, as prescribed by the United Nations.
This is not the first kidnapping
This is not the first time that Chinese weapons, headed towards Cyrenaica where General Khalifa Haftar is trying to control the parliament in Tobruk, have been seized by Italian authorities. It had already happened last June 18, after a tip-off from US intelligence. In that case, the seized material, worth several million dollars, came from the Chinese port of Yantian and was headed to Benghazi. The seizure of the MSC Arina ship, also in that case, occurred in the port of Gioia Tauro.
Behind the seizure there would therefore be the strong US will to prevent a strengthening of Chinese and Russian military control over Cyrenaica. According to Washington intelligence, the objective of Moscow and Beijing would be the exclusive control of a military port in Cyrenaica to strengthen the Chinese and Russian presence in Africa.
Just a few weeks ago, the US Treasury Department sanctioned the Russian company Goznak, accusing it of printing counterfeit dinars worth over a billion dollars to finance Haftar and Moscow’s militias in Libya. “The US is concerned about reports of Russian naval missions delivering military equipment to Libya,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller denounced.
China and Russia in Libya
Since the agreements signed in 2019, Turkey and Russia have divided Libya into zones of influence. China, following Vladimir Putin, has always supported General Khalifa Haftar and the institutions of Tobruk in Cyrenaica, together with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the militias 106, 201 and 604, and Prime Minister Osama Hammad who has struggled to take the reins of power.
A central role in the military organization of the militias active in Cyrenaica was played by the contractors of the Wagner group. The group is now in full reorganization after the death in suspicious circumstances of its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in August 2023. Prigozhin had dared to challenge Putin by starting a march towards Moscow with his militiamen, essential in Russian proxy wars in Africa, starting from Sudan. The flagship of this international pro-Haftar coalition has always been the Chinese Wing Loong drones, precisely among the weapons seized in Gioia Tauro.
On the other hand, no less armed to the teeth is the government of national unity of Abdel Hamid Dbeibah, supported by the international coalition, led by European countries, the United States, Turkey and Qatar, with its Bayraktar drones, Syrian and Turkmen mercenaries, and the support of the Misrata militias.
Open doors to Haftar
France has always maintained a privileged relationship with Haftar, the enemy-friend of Muammar Gaddafi, first with François Hollande and then Emmanuel Macron. The French and the English have taken advantage of the chaos in Libya after the 2011 NATO attacks that plunged the country into civil war.
But Italy has done the same. It was just a few weeks ago that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni last visited Libya, having also visited Tunisia and Egypt several times since the beginning of the year. In that case too, Meloni, in addition to meeting the authorities in Tripoli, had visited Haftar. In reality, the military man and his sons have shown that they do not even have complete control over the institutions in Tobruk and certainly do not have the military capacity to reach Tripoli.
The effects on the migration business
Finally, the competition between Libyan militiamen and smugglers for the migration business continues, which has transformed the country’s detention centers into concentration camps and the Mediterranean into a cemetery for migrants .
According to the United Nations, Tunisian border guards handed over hundreds of migrants to Libyan authorities. The migrants, transferred to the al-Assa and Nalout detention centers, were tortured, extorted and forced to do forced labor. After several weeks, the migrants were transported to the Bir al-Ghanam detention center, near Tripoli.
Last Monday, the Ras Jedir crossing between Tunisia and Libya was completely reopened after three months of closure, due to the continuous clashes that had taken place on the border between the two countries. Already in mid-June, the border had been partially reopened for the passage of humanitarian and medical aid, with the permission of the Tunisian and Algerian Interior Ministers.
The seizures of Chinese weapons in Gioia Tauro demonstrate the United States’ desire to keep Moscow and Beijing’s interests in Libya under control. While Putin is banking heavily on the general distraction caused by the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza to increase his presence in Cyrenaica, Washington has every interest in stopping the supply of weapons that fuel the proxy war in the oil-rich country, already torn apart by chaos and the presence of armed militias.
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