Sudanese military transport enters Libyan airspace : diplomat expelled

By Libya Herald staff.

Tripoli, 6 September 2014:

The Libyan government this evening expelled the Sudanese military attache after a Sudanese military transport entered Libyan airspace bound for Mitiga airport in Tripoli.

The plane was suspected to be ferrying weapons to Libya Dawn militias. Reuters quoted a government statement saying: “This work from the Sudanese state violates (the sovereignty) of the State of Libya and interferes into its affairs”.

Two days ago, the Military Council in Kufra denied that a Sudanese military aircraft which had landed at the local airport, was ferrying weapons to Mitiga.   The military council’s head, Colonel Suleiman Hamed Hassan, who also commands the joint Libyan-Sudanese Joint border control force, said that the weapon shipment on board the aircraft was for his men. He told the Libyan news agency LANA that the consignment had been known about and was expected. However there were reports that in fact Hassan had impounded the arms when the transport plane, thought to be a Russian-built Antonov An-12, landed in Kufra, possibly to refuel or because of a mechanical fault.

On Tuesday, Nuri Abu Sahmain, the president of the revived rump of the General National Congress completed what aides described as “an official visit” to Sudan.  While in Khartoum, Abu Sahmain was told by the Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti that his country was willing to act as a mediator between Libya’s factions.

If the Libyan government’s accusations are correct, then Sudan would be in breach of the 2011 UN arms embargo which is still in force. This would add to its difficulties with the United Nations. The International Criminal Court in the Hague, at the bidding of the Security Council, has outstanding 2009 arrest warrants for Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, relating to the Darfur rebellion.

Two other considerations might also arise, if the government is right. The first is that the suspected arms shipment was going to Mitiga rather than Misrata Airport. This might suggest that Misrata’s current Islamist allies are seeking to match Misratan levels of equipment. The second is the question of how the government was able track an aircraft from Sudan to Mitiga. The air traffic control systems at Tripoli International Airport are assumed to have been destroyed during its sack and burning. Benghazi’s Benina airport and adjacent airbase have been damaged by heavy rocket fire and shelling.

[/restrict]