The UN-recognised government in Tripoli and its US allies are banking on the incoming President-elect Joe Biden administration to ramp up Washington’s focus on Libya and deal a death blow to the political ambitions of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar.

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a Libyan commander and his militia, which rights groups accuse of detaining, torturing and killing civilians in the war-wracked country.

Libyan news outlets reported that Saddam Haftar spent over 13 million Libyan dinars (what equates to nearly 10 million dollars) on gifts for poets that praised him and his tribe during his wedding which was held in the West of Ajdabiya city. 

The General Authority for Search and Identification of Missing Persons in Libya announced on Monday that a new mass grave had been found in the city of Tarhuna, south of Tripoli.

The spokesman for the Sirte-Jufra Operations Room under the command of the Government of National Accord (GNA) Abdelhadi Drah said they had depicted massive military mobilization for Khalifa Haftar’s forces in Benghazi and other east Libyan cities moving toward the western region.

Russian Wagner Group mercenaries and the Sudanese Janjaweed forc es are still flooding into the city of Sirte to bolster the forces of Haftar, the Burkan Al-Ghadab (Volcano of Rage) operation said Wednesday.

Rival forces in Libya have failed to begin withdrawing as required under an October ceasefire agreement aimed at ending years of conflict following Muammar Gaddafi’s 2011 killing, a UN envoy said Thursday.

A well-known lawyer and human rights activist was gunned down in Benghazi, Libya, on 10 November. Hanan Al-Barassi, known as the “Granny of Burqa”, was murdered at around 2pm in one of the city’s busiest streets. According to Benghazi’s security directorate, a group of “unidentified masked men” first tried to …

Three United States senators on Wednesday said they would introduce legislation seeking to halt the Trump administration’s effort to sell more than $23bn of drones and other weapons systems to the United Arab Emirates, a showdown with the president two months before he is due to leave office.

The Libyan army announced on Wednesday that the Russian Wagner group and the Janjaweed mercenaries are still digging trenches in the northern city of Sirte.