Libya’s oil industry, the lifeblood of its economy, has fallen hostage once more to a political schism, as the re-emergence of parallel administrations has forced many hydrocarbon facilities to close.

The National Oil Corporation (NOC) declared on Tuesday force majeure on the Brega oil port due to the impossibility of implementing its commitments towards the oil market.

Up to 20,000 mercenaries from the Russian private military company the Wagner Group as well as from Syria and Libya are fighting alongside Moscow’s forces in Ukraine, a European official said Tuesday.

Libya’s National Oil Corporation has announced the closure of operations in major oil fields after staff in the key export terminal of Zueitina were blocked from working.

Swiss state prosecutors said Thursday they were investigating suspected war crimes through looting, in a probe into a network allegedly smuggling Libyan gasoil.

Brigade 444 of the Government of National Unity freed Sunday 195 people, including 23 women and two children, from the grip of a criminal gang in Bani Walid city in central Libya.

The Libyan Interior Minister, Khalid Mazen, called on all security apparatuses to double their efforts to exact security and dismantle criminal gangs for the safety of the people.

The Interior Ministry of the Libyan outgoing government said that the Sabratha Security Directorate transferred 40 people of different African nationalities to the Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency, after they were caught in a human smuggling den in the city during the last period.

A senior figure in Khalifa Haftar’s militias was shot dead in Benghazi on Sunday, local sources have confirmed.

The fighting detachments of the 444th Brigade announced yesterday that it is continuing its anti-fuel smuggling campaign on the edges of greater Tripoli.