BIG GAMBLE Mercenaries executed
SUDAN OPPOSITION PARTY: 11 ‘GREEDY’ FIELD COMMANDERS KILLED
Sudan’s Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) opposition party has reportedly executed 11 of its field commanders who were serving as mercenaries on the border between Libya and Sudan. Gaddafi during the 2011 Arab Spring, the North African country has become a hotbed of militia activity, with a plethora of them battling for political supremacy and territorial control.
A number are involved in illicit activity including human trafficking and drugs.
Many of the militias have foreigners in their ranks who are working as mercenaries, with paid fighters coming from sub-Saharan Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, thereby fuelling the civil war, according to a report released last year by the UN Panel of Experts on Libya, which began its work shortly after the 2011 revolution.
“Foreign interference in Libya has taken a more direct form with the increasing involvement of Chadian and Sudanese mercenaries,” the UN report reads.
All sides are using foreign fighters conflict.
And the large-scale of use of mercenary units in Libya separates the conflict from other civil wars in the region.
“Experts say the country’s relatively large size and small population – it has a land mass larger than Alaska and a population smaller than Massachusetts – is one reason it has expanded so quickly, said Joseph Hammond, a senior contributor with the American Media Institute.
The presence of large groups of foreign fighters in Libya is in striking contrast to other regional conflicts.
The Syrian Civil War and the larger struggle against the regime of Bashar Assad have attracted lone jihadists from around the world.
“Libya’s Civil war, by contrast, has attracted entire military to perpetuate the units with numerous groups joining the conflict.
“Notable examples include the Islamic State, possibly Hamas, as well as rebel movements from nations in the Sahel region of Africa,” said Hammond.
In September last year, the Libyan attorney-general’s office released new information on foreign fighters fighting with the Islamic State in Libya, with fighters coming from as far as Eritrea and Ghana.
The more than 100 foreign fighters from Sudan, Egypt and Tunisia are now members of the Islamic State in Libya.
The official also revealed that a Mauritanian national had been organising a cell for the Palestinian group Hamas in Libya.
There are also fears the foreign fighters have returned to their own countries and are fomenting violence there. – ANA