Libya: Foreign Fighters and Trouble in the South Clashes between rival tribes in Libya’s southern Fezzan region re-escalated on May 11. However, the situation reflects more than just tribal rivalries, and the involvement of foreign fighters has troubling implications for regional security. Recent clashes between... MORE

Libya: Haftar’s Brief Absence Exposes LNA Divisions Khalifa Haftar, the Libyan National Army (LNA) chief, has returned home, ending rumors that he had been incapacitated by ill health and was dying in a Paris hospital. Since returning to Libya, he has redoubled his campaign against... MORE

Renewed fighting in southern Libya around the Kufra and Sabha oases demonstrates the difficulty of reaching anything more substantial than temporary and fragile political agreements in the region. The parties to the seemingly intractable conflict in the south include a range of legitimate and semi-legitimate... MORE

Libya: Tackling Foreign Fighters in the South A new offensive by the Libyan National Army (LNA) is aimed partly at expelling foreign fighters, but the capture of alleged al-Qaeda infiltrators suggests jihadist groups may be looking to ramp up their efforts in Libya. On March... MORE

Since 2014, people smuggling and human trafficking has become a lucrative business in Libya, benefiting the country’s rival militias and tribes, but fueling instability. Efforts by the European Union (EU), in particular Italy, to combat the problem have had some partial success—in one of the most... MORE

In the last four months of 2017, the United States resumed bombing Islamic State (IS) targets in Libya.  On September 24, 2017, U.S. African Command (AFRICOM) announced it had conducted airstrikes against an IS training camp on September 22 at 7:06 PM, killing 17 militants... MORE

The spread of the Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula to the heavily populated Nile Delta and Nile Valley regions of Egypt has been facilitated by the importation of arms from Muammar Gaddafi’s looted Libyan armories. Prior to Libya’s 2011 revolution, arms and explosives were... MORE

Like New York City, Russian diplomacy seemingly never sleeps. Last week, President Vladimir Putin conducted a series of mini summits in Sochi on consolidating a postwar order in Syria and about taking a giant step forward in Sudan. During Putin’s first meetings on Syria, on... MORE

Libya: Islamic State Still Holding Out Fighters with Islamic State (IS) are clinging on in Libya despite the loss of their stronghold in Sirte last year. The country’s continuing political crisis has given the extremists time and space to regroup. In the last few months,... MORE