Policy

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

In 2020, Libya began to undertake the domestic procedures necessary for its accession to the treaty. A representative of Libya told States Parties in November 2020 that, “We seize this opportunity to convey to you the declaration by the Chair of the Presidential Council of the National Accord government of Libya is willing to join the Mine Ban Treaty,” and that Libya found “this treaty has extraordinary importance to Libya.”[1] He said that a working group had been formed to study and evaluate the necessary steps to complete accession.

The announcement marks a turnaround in Libya’s stance toward the Mine Ban Treaty. Previously, Libyan officials had expressed interest in the treaty, but criticized certain provisions.[2] For example, in October 2017, Libya told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that it accepted the humanitarian concerns raised by antipersonnel landmines and “the fact that they hinder sustainable development.” However, the official criticized the treaty’s lack of reference to “the responsibility that occupying States bear for repairing the damage they have caused and assisting the countries they have colonized.”[3]

On 28 April 2011, the National Transitional Council (NTC), then the opposition authority in Libya, issued a statement that “any future Libyan government should relinquish landmines and join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.”[4] It formally pledged that “no forces under the command and control of the [NTC] will use antipersonnel or anti-vehicle landmines.”

On 6 December 2021, Libya voted in favor of annual UNGA Resolution 76/26, which supports the universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. Libya has voted in favor of the annual resolution every year since 2012.[5]

Despite not joining the Mine Ban Treaty, Libya has participated as an observer at many Meetings of States Parties, as well as at the treaty’s First Review Conference in 2004 and the Third Review Conference in 2014.[6] Libya attended the Nineteenth Meeting of States Parties, held virtually in November 2021, as an observer. Libya did not attend the intersessional meetings in Geneva in June 2022.

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

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Libya has consistently stated that it has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines.[7]

However, antipersonnel landmines have been acquired and imported, or otherwise transferred into Libya. Under the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya accumulated a stockpile of hundreds of thousands of antipersonnel and antivehicle mines that were later abandoned in unsecure weapons storage depots during 2011.[8] It is unclear how many landmines have been removed from Libyan stocks by non-state armed groups (NSAGs), civilians, and others.

Evidence has emerged showing eight types of Russian-made antipersonnel mines, and two types of antivehicle mines, not seen before in Libya that were used in and around Tripoli in 2019–2020, indicating that the mines had recently been transferred into the country. A March 2021 report by the United Nations (UN) Security Council Panel of Experts on Libya found that private military contractors from Russia brought in the antipersonnel mines to use in their operations.[9]

Landmine types identified in Libya (2011–present)

Several types of antivehicle mines used or found in stocks in Libya contain antihandling devices or sensitive fuzes that can cause them to explode due to the presence, proximity, or contact of a person. When victim-activated, such mines meet the definition of an antipersonnel mine under the Mine Ban Treaty.[10] The characteristics of certain antivehicle mines, including low-metal content mines, seriously complicate clearance efforts.[11]

The post-Gaddafi era government in Libya destroyed some landmine stocks in early 2012, but no information is available on the numbers or types of landmines destroyed.[12]

Use

In May 2020, the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) discovered significant mine contamination in areas of Tripoli vacated by opposing forces that month. The departing rebels were from a Russian government-linked military company, the Wagner Group, which was fighting on behalf of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA). In June 2020, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that “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.”[13]

In July 2020, the United States (US) Armed Forces’ Africa Command (AFRICOM) posted photos of an antipersonnel mine allegedly found in a residential area of Tripoli, that it said was brought into Libya by Russian mercenaries. AFRICOM’s Rear Admiral Heidi Berg criticized the “Wagner Group’s reckless use of landmines and booby traps” in Libya, which she said were “harming innocent civilians.”[14]

In August 2021, the BBC published a report on the contents of an electronic tablet believed to have belonged to a fighter from the Wagner Group, which included maps of mined areas in Tripoli in 2020.[15] During a March 2022 visit to Libya, HRW confirmed that all 35 locations found on the tablet were in fact mined, and that the Wagner Group was present in those areas at the time. These landmines included Soviet era MON-100 and MON-200 directional fragmentation antipersonnel mines, which had not been identified in Libya prior to the 2019–2020 conflict [16] In mid-2020, clearance teams reportedly cleared at least 400 mines and other explosive devices from more than 200 homes in Tripoli’s southern enclave of Salahideen, which they said had been laid by Russian mercenaries.[17]

The new landmine use has been condemned by various governments, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), the president of the Eighteenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty H.E. Osman Abufatima Adam Mohammed, the ICBL, and others.[18] Most recently, this mine use was condemned by the Panel of Experts on Libya in a letter addressed to the President of the Security Council in May 2022.[19] The mines, both standard and improvised, caused casualties among civilians returning to the contaminated area.

Previous use

There were sporadic reports and allegations of mine use by militias in Libya during 2011–2019.[20] The Shura Council of the Mujahideen in Darna was alleged to have laid landmines in May 2018.[21]

Pro-Gaddafi forces used at least three types of antipersonnel mines 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.

Libya also used antipersonnel mines during its 1980–1987 war with Chad. Libya is contaminated by landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) from World War II, as well as from wars with Egypt in 1977 and Chad in 1980–1987. The perimeter of some facilities in Libya contain minefields, such as an ammunition storage area outside of Ajdabiya that was partially surrounded by a minefield and marked only by a deteriorating fence.[22]