The UN Security Council is considering imposing the first-ever sanctions on people smugglers in Libya, targeting six leaders of trafficking rings, but Russia has requested more information, documents obtained by AFP on Monday showed.

The UN envoy for Libya is warning that the oil-rich country’s “perverse economic model” based on corruption and trafficking in people and goods “must be shattered” to end its political crisis and progress toward stability and democratic elections this year.

The Presidential Council (PC) formed in a Wednesday order a new force tasked with securing and protecting the southern region in Libya, the media office of the Head of the PC Fayez Al-Sirraj, reported.

The National Oil Corporation’s (NOC) Brega Marketing Fuel and Gas Crisis Committee announced that fuel smugglers’ sites on the Libyan Tunisian border have been struck by the Libyan Air Force. These strikes come after the Committee had announced earlier this week that it had concluded its survey of fuel smugglers’ …

One gunman was killed and two others were injured in armed fighting among fuel smuggling gangs in Garyat town – 350 km to Tripoli’s south.

The National Oil Corporation’s (NOC) Brega Marketing/ Fuel and Gas Crisis Committee announced that the 6th squadron of the Presidential Council-aligned Air Force revealed on Monday that it is supporting the anti-fuel smuggling initiative launched by the National Oil Corporation.

“I studied to become a nurse, to help people and to serve my country. But now I have no money to even to help my father in his old age,” says Khaled as he pulls out his wallet and opens it to show the empty contents. “Not a single coin.”

Fuel smuggling is costing Libya more than $750 million each year and harming its economy and society, the head of the National Oil Company in the conflict-riddled country said.

Each year, thousands of African migrants depart Libya in rickety boats and risk their lives seeking better opportunities in Europe. Many other migrants remain in the North African country, drawn by opportunities but also subjected to mistreatment at the hands of smugglers and traffickers.

As Libya’s war economy persists, prospects for the restoration of functioning central governance become more distant, concluded a Chatham House report published today.