US founder of Blackwater violated Libya arms embargo

The founder of the sulphurous private security firm Blackwater, Erik Prince, could face sanctions after this staunch supporter of former US President Donald Trump violates a UN arms embargo in Libya, according to a report confidential revealed Friday, February 19 in the press. Dailies New York Times and Washington Post had access to this 121-page report compiled by UN investigators for the Security Council.

According to him, Erik Prince sent foreign mercenaries and weapons to Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of eastern Libya, as he tried to bring down the internationally backed Libyan government in 2019. This operation , amounting to $ 80 million, provided for the formation of a commando team to track down and kill senior Libyan officials, some of whom potentially hold European passports, reports the New York Times.

Erik Prince incurs a travel ban

Erik Prince, who is also the brother of former education minister Betsy DeVos, is the founder of the private security firm Blackwater, of which four ex-agents convicted of the murder of 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007 in Baghdad, have pardoned by Donald Trump in December 2020. The report’s accusations could lead to sanctions against Erik Prince, including a travel ban, according to the Times.

Ten years after the NATO-backed uprising that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, Libya is still undermined by power struggles, divided between two rival authorities, against a backdrop of foreign implications. On October 23, the two rival parties signed a permanent ceasefire agreement with “immediate effect”, after five days of discussions in Geneva under the aegis of the UN. On February 5, engineer and businessman Abdel Hamid Dbeibah was appointed interim prime minister, alongside a three-member transitional presidential council, to ensure the transition pending national elections in December 2021 .

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