As reported by Defense News Nigeria, Africa’s most powerful army – the Egyptian one – is amassing tanks and helicopter gunships at the Libyan border: M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters appear more and more numerous, ready to retaliate to “provocations” from Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA).
This deployment of forces announces an Egyptian intervention against Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA). The Second Libyan Civil War is an ongoing conflict among rival factions seeking control of Libya. After erupting in 2014, the conflict is mostly between:
* the House of Representatives, elected in 2014 with a low turnout (18%), relocated to Tobruk, which appointed Marshal Khalifa Haftar as commander-in-chief of the Libyan National Army with the mission of restoring its sovereignty over the whole of Libyan territory;
* the Government of National Accord, led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, based in the capital Tripoli and established after failed military coups and the relocation of the House of Representatives to Tobruk. It is recognized by the UN as the sole legal government of Libya.
Turkey, Russia, Qatar and several other countries each support one of the two rival factions, which means a worsening conflict for the months (and years?) to come.