Policy

The State of Libya has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty.

In October 2017, a representative said that Libya “supports the concerns of the international community about the humanitarian impact of anti-personnel mines and their destruction and the fact that they hinder sustainable development. We need only look at the effects of anti-personnel mines since the Second World War. We are also well aware of the damage caused by occupation. However, the Convention does not make reference to the responsibility that occupying States bear for repairing the damage they have caused and assisting the countries they have colonized.”[1]

In October 2011, two Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials informed the ICBL that there was support for joining the Mine Ban Treaty, but that the matter must wait until the new government was established and for the legislative body to consider accession.[2] Libya’s signature of the 2013 Arms Trade Treaty, on 9 July 2013, indicated that the government is ready to join international treaties.

On 12 December 2019, Libya voted in favor of annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 74/61, which supports the universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. Libya has voted in favour of the annual resolution consistently since 2012.[3]

Prior to being deposed in 2011, the government of Muammar Gaddafi showed interest in the Mine Ban Treaty but made no effort to join it; Libyan officials often criticized the treaty and called for it to be revised.[4] On 28 April 2011, the National Transitional Council (NTC), then the opposition authority in Libya, issued a statement formally pledging that “no forces under the command and control of the [NTC] will use antipersonnel or anti-vehicle landmines.” The statement also said that “any future Libyan government should relinquish landmines and join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.”[5] The current UN-recognized Government of National Accord voiced similar concerns in its 2016 Explanation of Vote on the annual UNGA resolution.[6]

Despite not joining the Mine Ban Treaty, Libya has participated as an observer in many of the treaty’s meetings of States Parties as well as the first and third review conferences.[7] Libya last attended the Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November–December 2015 as an observer, but did not make any statements.

Libya is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It is also not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

As the government of Muammar Gaddafi progressively lost control of the country in 2011, massive weapons depots containing landmines and other munitions were abandoned by government forces and left unsecured.[8] Local and international mine action organizations have worked with Libyan authorities and the UN since mid-2011 to collect and destroy abandoned ordnance, but it is unclear how many landmines were removed by anti-government rebels, civilians, and others.

Prior to 2011, Libya consistently stated that it had never produced or exported antipersonnel mines and that it no longer stockpiled the weapon.[9] Yet abundant evidence subsequently emerged showing that Libya had accumulated a stockpile of hundreds of thousands of antipersonnel and antivehicle mines under Gaddafi’s leadership, and that his forces used tens of thousands of these mines during the 2011 conflict.

In December 2016, Chinese-made Type 84 rocket-delivered antivehicle mines appeared in Benghazi in the possession of the Libyan National Army (LNA). Markings indicated they were manufactured in 2009. Use of this mine was first documented in 2011 in Misrata. Although this mine is designed as an antivehicle mine, it is equipped with a sensitive magnetic influence fuze that can function as an anti-disturbance fuze.[10]

The post-Gaddafi government in Libya began to destroy landmine stocks in early 2012, but no information is available on the numbers or types of landmines destroyed and it is still not clear if systematic stockpile destruction efforts are being undertaken as of October 2019.[11]

Use

In May 2020, the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) discovered significant mine contamination in areas of Tripoli vacated by rebels that month. The departing rebels were from a Russian government-linked military company, the Wagner group, which was fighting on behalf of Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Tobruk-based LNA. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported, “GNA-aligned forces shared photographs on Twitter on May 29 showing four types of antipersonnel landmines manufactured in the Soviet Union or Russia and claiming they were “laid by the Wagner mercenaries” in the Ain Zara, Al-Khilla, Salahuddin, Sidra, and Wadi al-Rabi districts of Tripoli. Other photographs shared on social media show mines equipped with tripwires and mines used as triggers to detonate larger improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Video footage shows various explosive charges used to booby-trap homes, including antivehicle mines, paired with various types of fuzes and a mix of electronic timers, circuit boards, and modified cell phones.”[12]

The new mine use was condemned by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL),[13] the President of the Eighteenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, H.E. Osman Abufatima Adam Mohammed,[14] and the ICBL.[15] The mines, both standard and improvised, caused casualties among civilians returning to the area. Between late May and early July 2020, UNSMIL reported 138 casualties, including clearance workers, due to the newly laid explosive devices[16] (see Casualties section). Previous sporadic reports of landmine use by militias active in Libya had emerged from time to time since the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime in 2011.[17] In May 2018, it was alleged that the Shura Council of the Mujahideen in Darna laid landmines while fighting forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar.[18] Civilians seeking food and fuel were also reported to have been killed by landmines during the conflict.[19]

A spokesman for the eastern LNA said 68 soldiers were killed and 45 injured by landmines in 2017.[20] Reports of civilian deaths and injuries continue to be reported in the local media.[21]

Previous use

HRW confirmed the use of five types of mines in six separate locations by pro-Gaddafi forces during the 2011 conflict, first in the east of the country, then in the Nafusa mountain range in the northwest, and finally around Tripoli and coastal towns in the west. This included the use of low-metal content antipersonnel mines that are particularly challenging for detection and clearance efforts, such as the Brazilian T-AB-1 mine.[22] Three types of mines were also found abandoned at three other locations.

Mine types identified in Libya during the 2011 conflict

Prior to 2011, Libya last used antipersonnel mines during its 1980–1987 war with Chad. Libya is contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance from World War II, as well as from wars with Egypt (1977) and Chad (1980–1987). Minefields are said to exist in desert, port, and urban areas; however, no nationwide survey has ever been conducted. Previously, some facilities were protected by minefields, such as an ammunition storage area outside of Ajdabiya that HRW confirmed was partially surrounded by a minefield, marked only by a deteriorating fence.[23]