Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the head of Libya’s National Army, loyal to the Tobruk government, has announced an offensive to take over Tripoli, where the UN-backed government is located.
Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj, who is at the helm of the Tripoli-based Libyan government, has issued a warning that the flow of refugees from Libya to Europe will grow significantly if the fighting in Libya continues.
“We are facing a war of aggression that will spread its cancer throughout the Mediterranean. Italy and Europe need to be united and firm in stopping the war of aggression by Khalifa Haftar, a man who betrayed Libya and the international community,”
al-Sarraj said in an interviewwith the Italian newspaper Repubblica.“There are not only the 800,000 migrants potentially ready to leave, there would be Libyans escaping from this war,” the president noted.
He added that the south of Libya had seen the resurgence of Daesh* terrorists who were ousted from the city of Sirte in late 2016.