Summary

Non-signatory Libya has expressed interest in the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but has not taken any steps to join it. Libya participated in a meeting of the convention in September 2021, and voted in favor of the key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2021.

Libya is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions, but it has imported them and possesses a stockpile. The last alleged use of cluster munitions was in 2019 by forces affiliated with the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF).

Policy

Libya has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Libya has expressed interest in the convention, but has not taken any steps to accede to it.[1]

In March 2020, a Government of National Unity was formed as the new interim authority, ahead of national elections scheduled for 2022.

Under the former government of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya participated in three regional conferences held during the 2007–2008 Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions. However, Libya attended the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 only as an observer, and did not join in the consensus adoption of the convention.[2] Libya did not attend the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008.

Libya participated as an observer at the convention’s Second Review Conference, held in November 2020 and September 2021.[3]

In December 2021, Libya voted in favor of a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[4] Libya has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Libya is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Libya is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions. It imported cluster munitions and possesses a stockpile, but has not shared information on the types and quantities stockpiled or where the munitions are stored.During the uprising that led to the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011, abandoned and unsecured stocks of cluster munitions were seized by anti-government forces and civilians, and subjected to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) airstrikes. There has been no systematic or coordinated stockpile destruction effort by successive interim governments or clearance operators in Libya.

From the use of cluster munitions in recent years, it is apparent that Libya has stockpiled air-dropped bombs (RBK-series bombs containing AO-1SCh and PTAB-2.5M submunitions), ground-fired munitions (MAT-120 mortar projectiles containing submunitions), and an unidentified type of submunition contained in Grad-type 122mm surface-to-surface rockets.[5] In 2004, Jane’s Information Group listed Libya as possessing KMGU dispensers (which deploy submunitions) and RBK-500 series cluster bombs.[6] Spain confirmed transferring 1,055 MAT-120 cluster munitions containing 22,155 submunitions to Libya in 2006 and 2008.[7]

Use

There were no allegations or reports of new use of cluster munitions in Libya in 2021 or the first half of 2022.

The last recorded use of cluster munitions in Libya was in 2019, by forces affiliated with LAAF, formerly known as the Libyan National Army (LNA). According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), LAAF forces used air-dropped cluster munitions in Tripoli on or around 2 December 2019.[8] LAAF took responsibility for conducting an attack on Zuwarah Airport on 15–16 August 2019 that involved the use of RBK-500 cluster munitions.[9] In June 2019, the Government of National Accord (GNA) released undated photographs showing the remnants of RBK-250 cluster bombs and various submunitions, which it said were “discovered in greater Tripoli and other areas (Ras al-Lufa, al-Sawani, al-Aziziyah, al-Tugar Mosque and Bir al-Ghanem)” following airstrikes by LAAF forces in May 2019.

Between 2015 and 2018, there were allegations and some evidence of use of cluster munitions in Libya, but the Monitor was not able to conclusively attribute responsibility.[10] An aviation blogger documented cluster munitions being loaded onto LNA aircraft which were used to conduct aerial attacks against opposition forces in 2016–2018.[11] Investigations by international human rights organizations found evidence of LNA cluster bomb use in late 2014 and early 2015.[12]

Government forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi used at least three different types of cluster munitions in Libya during 2011:

• RBK-250 PTAB-2.5M cluster bombs in Ajdabiya in March;
• MAT-120 cluster munition mortar projectiles in Misrata in April; and
• Dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM)-like submunitions, delivered by 122mm cargo rockets, in the Nafusa Mountains near Jadu and Zintan on an unknown date.[13]

At least 14 states and the European Union (EU) expressed concern over or condemned this use of cluster munitions.[14]

In its formal response to the UN Commission of Inquiry on Libya, NATO confirmed that it did not use cluster munitions in Libya in 2011.[15] However, NATO airstrikes on ammunition storage facilities created hazards when munitions stored by Libya, including cluster munitions, were ejected into the surrounding environment.[16]

Libyan forces used air-delivered cluster munitions, likely RBK-series cluster bombs containing AO-1SCh and PTAB-2.5 submunitions, at various locations during an intervention in Chad amid the 1986–1987 conflict.[17]

The United States (US) Navy used Mk-20 Rockeye cluster bombs during an attack on Libyan ships on 25 March 1986, while US Navy aircraft dropped 60 Rockeye bombs on Benina airfield on 14–15 April 1986.[18]

In 2009, a commercial oil company survey crew in Libya found the remnants of a German World War II-era SD-2 “butterfly bomb” (an early version of a cluster bomb) and destroyed the remnants of another six such cluster bombs.[19]