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A series of military victories over extremist Islamic groups along Libya's Mediterranean coastline has forced hundreds of militants, including Islamic State fighters, to seek refuge in the vast deserts of the North African nation, already home to militias from neighboring countries, cross-border criminal gangs and mercenaries.

Libya's lawless, desolate center and south provides a sanctuary for militants to reorganize, recruit, train and potentially plot for a comeback. That is especially important at a time when the Islamic State group lost not only its urban holdings in Libya but is crumbling in Iraq and Syria.

In Libya's remote stretches near the borders with Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Algeria, Niger and Tunisia, multiple armed groups already operate freely. Arms are easily available. Human trafficking and cross-border smuggling, especially fuel, are rampant and lucrative.

Lack of effective border controls has allowed militiamen fighting the Sudanese and Chadian governments to set up camp inside Libya. Alongside them came soldiers-for-hire from places as far afield as Cameroon. Tribal and ethnic rivalries frequently boil over into deadly strife.

Militants "travel back and forth near the southern borders and all the way to the central parts of the country, robbing travelling cars and attacking civilians," said Brig. Gen. Abdullah Nouredeen of the Libyan National Army. "They sometimes work close to the borders since there is money to be made from smuggling and arms trading."

The migration of the militants comes after rivals drove them out of coastal cities like Sirte, Benghazi, Sebratha and Derna. Their dispersion into the desert undermines prospects for a return of stability in oil-rich Libya.

Claudia Gazzini, the International Crisis Group's senior Libya analyst, said IS militants were generally lying low in the desert south of the coastline, moving in small convoys so as not to attract attention or just going home. Others, she explained, were active around Sirte, staging occasional attacks against their adversaries.

Going forward, she said, IS remnants will likely try to influence and win over groups opposed to Gen. Khalifa Hifter, the Egyptian-backed commander of Libya's national army who has been fighting militants.

"We are already seeing signs that this may have already happened," she said.

Sensing danger, Egypt has begun to closely monitor its borders with Sudan and Libya, fearing the area could turn into a major staging ground for attacks inside its territory. Egypt has said IS militants fighting its security forces in the Sinai Peninsula receive arms and fighters from Libya. It said militants behind recent deadly attacks against Christians were trained in Libya and sneaked into Egypt across the porous desert border.

Like the rest of Libya, the desert towns and villages in the country's central and southern regions have seen law and order vanish since the 2011 ouster and death of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Across the country, militias many of them with Islamist ideologies have carved out fiefdoms, imposing their will on local administrations.

Some estimates put the number of full-time militiamen in Libya at around 120,000 and IS fighters around 1,000, but there is no way to independently verify these figures.

Gen. Hifter has sought to drive out Islamic militants and bring the center and south under his control but with limited success. He said he intends to seal off Libya's borders with Egypt, Sudan and Chad by early July to stop the flow of arms, fighters and migrants.

It is widely believed, however, that his forces don't have the resources to enforce order in the vast region or take on the hardened militants and militiamen there.

In a sign of desperation over deteriorating security, Libya's national oil company halted shipments to the south, after a series of hijackings of convoys delivering fuel. Invariably, the fuel surfaced later in the black market or in neighboring countries.

The following are key geographical locations for the militants and armed groups:

ZAMZAM VALLEY:

Zamzam Valley is south of Misrata about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the coast. Scores of IS militants found refuge there after they were defeated last year by militiamen loyal to the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli after a months-long battle. IS fighters in Zamzam Valley occasionally launch attacks against Misrata, the hometown of the militia that drove them out of Sirte, as well as kidnap travelers or attacks checkpoints.

AL-AWAYNAT:

This location in the remote southwestern corner of Libya close to the borders of Algeria and Niger has become something of a "mercenaries central" because of the hundreds of guns-for hire stationed there. The men, mostly from Chad, Niger and Cameroon, are hired mostly to fight under the banners of different militias. They make an average of $2,000 a month when hired. Militias and criminal groups in al-Awaynat, meanwhile, make money from human trafficking, kidnappings for ransom and smuggling of weapons, drugs and fuel.

AL-KUFRA:

Small cells of IS and al-Qaida fighters are believed to have moved to the outskirts of this oasis city in southeast Libya in recent months. Al-Kufra has for decades been torn by a deadly conflict pitting the Arab Alzway tribes against the sub-Saharan African Tabu group, which inhabits a large swath of territory stretching across northern Chad, southern Libya, northwestern Sudan and northeastern Niger.

Alzway dominate the city and accuse the Tabu of harboring criminals and militants from Sudan and Chad. The Tabu deny the charges. Militias from both sides are involved in tit-for-tat raids that often target civilians. The conflict is widely seen as a rivalry over control of border crossings and lucrative smuggling routes.

Two brigades from Hifter's Libyan National Army are stationed at al-Kufra, but they don't have the manpower or resources to enforce law and order in the vast desert area.

SABHA:

Most of the hundreds of militants who managed to flee the assault on Sirte last year are thought to have made it near this town in central Libya.

It was a perfect destination. The city is virtually out of control, with several ongoing conflicts. The main players are Awlad Suleiman, an ethnically Arab tribe, and the Tabu and Twareg, all of whom have for years been vying for a bigger slice of the smuggling trade.

Anti-government militiamen from Sudan and Chad provide a pool of mercenaries for any armed group. They are also involved in cross-border arms smuggling, according to local politician Youssef Kalourki.

IS fighters in the area keep a low profile, spending most of their time in valleys and mountains outside the city.

In May, forces loyal to Hifter seized a nearby air base and several localities. It was a significant victory, but Hifter's forces remain a long way away from controlling the region.

UBARI:

This town southwest of Sabha saw fierce fighting among rival criminal gangs in 2015 that displaced almost the entire population. The hostilities were triggered by an attempt by several militias to control the black market in subsidized fuel provided by the Tripoli government.

Radical militant groups in the area, including al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, are known to be involved in the illicit trade, selling the fuel in neighboring countries for at least 10 times the price in Libya.

Hendawi reported from Cairo.

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Militants find sanctuary in Libya's wild south - ABC News

AFP on July 12, 2017, 11:50 pm

Newborn among migrants reaching Italy after rescue off Libya

Rome (AFP) - The first of more than 3,500 would-be migrants picked up off the coast of Libya in recent days arrived Wednesday in Italy, as Rome pressures other countries into taking their share.

The early morning saw a coast guard vessel with 481 migrants aboard reach the southern Sicilian port of Pozzallo, while the Phoenix vessel of Maltese NGO Moas began disembarking 422 more further up the coast at Trapani.

One migrant was a newborn Cameroonian named Christ, whose mother gave birth to him Tuesday aboard a rickety wooden boat.

Rescuers applauded as she made her way up a ladder to haul herself on to the Aquarius, a vessel chartered by SOS Mediterranee and MSF.

The little boy's father has still to attempt the hazardous trip to Europe from Libya.

MSF midwife Alice Gautreau tweeted how she cut the child's umbilical cord.

"Little Christ is doing fine, his mother too. But it would have been better for both if she had not had to give birth in the middle of the Mediterranean, surrounded by 100 men," Gautreau added.

Vessels from four other NGOs -- Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), SOS Mediterranee, Save the Children and ProActiva Open Arms -- were on their way to Italian ports with a cargo of some 2,700 more migrants, including many children, picked up Tuesday, those organisations said.

Italy has been urging its EU partners to make a "concrete contribution" to dealing with the crisis both in terms of trying to limit departures from Libya and also taking in a portion of those who survive the perilous journey.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni warned last week that his country did not have "unlimited" capacity to keep taking people having already accepted around 85,000 of the 100,000 people who have arrived this year.

EU interior ministers last week pledged to back an urgent European Commission plan to help Italy by earmarking 35 million euros ($40 million) in aid.

The issue was high on the agenda of Wednesday talks in the northeastern city of Trieste between Gentiloni, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel attending a Western Balkans summit.

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Newborn among migrants reaching Italy after rescue off Libya - Yahoo7 News

OPEC wants an orderly recovery in oil production fromLibya, Nigeria and Iran andhas a flexible output target under its cuts agreementto accommodate more crude from the three member nations,the groups Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countrieswas anticipating a revival in production from the three when it set a targeted output range from 32.5 million to 33 millionbarrels a dayunder its Novemberagreement, Barkindo told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday at a conference in Istanbul. Nigeria will support a cap on its production,the countrysMinister of State for Petroleum Resources Emmanuel Kachikwu told reporters in Abuja.

OPECs Barkindo discusses the recovery of oil production in Libya and Nigeria

(Source: Bloomberg)

What we would like to see is an orderly recovery that would not disrupt significantly the re-balancing of the market, which is a very delicate process which has taken longer than expected because of the change in fundamentals, Barkindo said.By setting a range for the production ceiling, OPEC was making provisions for the expected recovery of production from Libya, Nigeria and Iran, he said.

OPEC decided in November to reduce its output by 1.2 million barrels a day to 32.5 million starting Jan. 1 to clear a global glut. Other producers including Russia joined the deal, which was extended through March 2018.

Libya and Nigeria were both exempted from the cuts due to their internal strife, while Iran was allowed to raise production by 90,000 barrels a day as it was recovering from sanctions. Crude slid into a bear market last month amid concerns that cutbacks by OPEC and allied producers are being partially offset by a rebound in supply from Libya and Nigeria and by U.S. shale output.Benchmark Brent crude has dropped 16 percent this year and was 10 cents lower at $47.64 a barrelin London on Thursday at 7:24 a.m. local time.

OPEC pumped 32.6 million barrels a day in June, and its output exceeded demand in the first half of this year, according to a report the group issued Wednesday.

Libya and Nigeria may be asked to cap their output soon in an effort to help re-balance the market, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Issam Almarzooq said Monday at the Istanbul event.Both African nations are expected to send representatives to the next meeting of theOPEC and non-OPEC Joint Technical Committee on July 22 inRussia, Barkindo said.

OPEC recognizes thatLibya, Nigeria, and Iran have faced severe challenges, and it welcomes their increased production,he said. We are glad these countries are recovering fast.

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Nigerias output limit would come into play when the nation can pump at a stable rate of 1.8 million barrels a day, about 100,000 more than its currently producing, Kachikwu said. We still are below the 1.8 million barrel a day benchmark set for us by OPEC, he said. I think that over the next one or two months, hopefully, we can get to that point where we can say the recovery has been tested, it is systemic and predictable.

Nigeria will miss an OPEC ministerial committee meeting in Russia scheduled for July 24, but Kachikwu plans to meet with Saudi Arabia and Russia after that, he said.

Libyas output has risen to 1.05 million barrels a day, or 45,000 barrels a day more than the country was pumping at the beginning of July, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified for lack of authorization to speak to the media. The nations output is at the highest level since June 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The global cuts accord between OPEC and non-OPEC producers faced headwinds in the first quarter this year and didnt cause crude stockpiles to decline fast enough, Barkindo said.The current market downturn is lasting longer than previous slumps, due largely to 700,000 to 800,000 barrels a day of additional supply from the U.S., he said.

Supply and demand now show us we are on the right course to achieving OPECs goal of reducing stockpiles to their five-year average, he said.

Shale producers need to join us so that together we can restore stability and maintain it, Barkindo said. The global economy itself benefits from stable oil markets.

Continued here:
OPEC Can Absorb 'Orderly' Oil Recovery From Libya, Nigeria, Iran - Bloomberg

The rumor spread quickly: A man had been beaten to death by police. For blacks frustrated by high unemployment, inadequate schools, substandard housing yet another abuse by police was too much to bear, and they erupted.

There were no shouts that black lives mattered. This was Newark in 1967, long before deaths at the hands of police in cities like Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., gave birth to another movement in another era.

For four days in July, Newark was the epicenter of black rage. The rioting left 26 dead, more than 700 injured and nearly 1,500 arrested, mostly black. In addition to the $10 million in property damage, the riots left economic and emotional scars on Brick City that, in many ways, have not yet healed.

Newark was a deadly entry in the long list of major urban areas that exploded over a five-year period, among them Watts in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston and New York's Harlem. Days after Newark burned, Detroit followed. The disorders exposed for the first time to much of white America racial and economic disparities that went far beyond the familiar scenes of segregation in the South.

"A riot is at the bottom of the language of the unheard," the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his last book, "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?" in 1967. "The amazing thing about the ghetto is that so few Negroes have rioted."

The rioters spoke loudly, but were they heard? The echoes of 1967 in today's America would suggest they were not, and the lessons not learned linger for a new generation where racial tensions, indifference and inaction persist.

"People were thinking about who they were, and thinking that they deserved more as American citizens," said Komozi Woodard, who grew up in Newark and was 18 years old at the time of the riots. "It went from a situation that was unbearable, to the community feeling it was unacceptable."

As a 12-year-old black boy, Woodard was beaten by a street gang in his neighborhood. His mother called the police for help, and when they arrived, the officers beat her son too.

It was 1961, and Woodard had learned his first lesson about the relationship between police and his community.

"I believed in the system, and the system came out and beat me up," said Woodard, now 68 and a history professor at Sarah Lawrence College. "It was an everyday occurrence for police to just beat people up.

By 1967, as whites fled for the suburbs and were replaced with a wave of black and brown residents, Newark was New Jersey's largest city and the country's first majority-black city aside from Washington.

Most of Newark's power structure remained white. Only 11% of its police force was black; citizen complaints about treatment by police routinely went unanswered and the few black officers on the force had little opportunity for advancement or leadership.

By July 12, Newark's black residents had had enough.

John W. Smith, a black man, was driving his cab when he was pulled over by two white Newark police officers. Smith and the officers' version of events diverged, but Smith was badly beaten during his arrest.

Smith was taken to a police precinct directly across from Hayes Homes. Residents who saw him dragged inside assumed he'd been killed by the officers, and word spread quickly through the crowded housing project.

Though Smith was treated at a hospital and later released, a riot broke out that night, followed by looting. The unrest continued for three more nights. State police and National Guard troops were called in to quell the uprising.

Many of the scenes that unfolded in Newark have resembled the conflict of the last few years: Residents clashing with police wearing riot gear and driving armored vehicles down city streets, mass arrests, government officials calling for curfews and frustrated citizens burning neighborhood storefronts.

The 1967 riots prompted President Lyndon Johnson to launch an inquiry into the cause of the racial disorders. Among the findings of the Kerner Commission were that the country "is moving toward two societies, one black, one white separate and unequal." The report identified police practices as among the primary factors that led to the unrest in black communities.

"The abrasive relationship between the police and the minority communities has been a major and explosive source of grievance, tension and disorder," the report read. "The blame must be shared by the total society."

The commission recommendations to improve police-community relations included a review of police operations to eliminate abrasive practices, more police protection to inner-city residents, more hiring and promotion of black officers and a means for residents to file complaints against the police.

The conclusions reached in the 2015 Justice Department report on Ferguson sounded similar to the Kerner Commission's findings.

In 1970, Newark became the first Northeastern city to elect a black mayor. Its police force became more diverse, and more officers lived in the city they were charged with serving. Today, 38% of the Police Department is black and 40% is white. The city's overall population is much the same as in 1967: 52% black and 26% white.

In the wake of the riots, economic development was largely limited to the city's downtown, where whites worked. The poverty level for black residents is 33%, and Newark residents hold only 18% of all jobs in the city.

In 2016, the Police Department was put under federal consent decree after a Justice Department investigation found officers were making unlawful stops and arrests, using excessive force and retaliating against residents. Fifty years after the Newark riots, similar recommendations are still being made as part of the federal consent decrees reached between cities and police departments including Ferguson, Chicago, and New Orleans found to have discriminatory practices against minority residents.

"We are a long way from 1967, but we are even further away from where we need to be to prevent 1967 from happening again," said Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, whose father, poet and activist Amiri Baraka, was badly beaten during the riots. "There were a myriad of things that were suggested, and frankly they were ignored. People need to feel like the government and the police are there to protect them and not to prey on them."

Whack writes for the Associated Press.

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Newark riots recall an era echoed by Black Lives Matter - Los Angeles Times

Black Lives Matter activists are respondingto the National Rifle Association after the gun rights group sent out a series of chilling ads attacking the violent left. In a video response replicating NRA spokeswomanDana Loeschs conservative call to action,activists from the Los Angeles chapter of BLM refer to the ads as dangerous propaganda which creategun-toting racists, and call for their removal.

When the NRA issues a public call to their constituents, inciting violence against people who are constitutionally fighting for their lives, we dont take that lightly, saidFunmilola Fagbamila a member of BLM LA inthe response.

They use their new president to enact a law-and-order administration,'she continued, over ominous music and adark background . All to make them shoot first, to make them ask questions later, make them scream, I thought he had a gun in his hand and I feared for my life and he matched the description of a suspect and she was threatening us until the only option left is for black people to disrupt the systems that keep us oppressed and build the kinds of communities in which we want to live.

The video comes as a response to Loeschs widely criticized adwhere she called upon supporters to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth.

The truth Loesch referred to is ambiguous almost as vague the NRAs initial response to the death of Philando Castile, which wasa statement onFacebook, telling their followers they will have more to say once all the facts are known.

Castille was shot and killed on June 6, 2016 by officerGeronimoYanez after being pulled over during a traffic stop. According todash cam videoand accompanying audio, Castille could be heard tellingthe officer he is armed before reaching for his license and registration, just beforethe officer shothim seven times.

And now, after over a year of silence about Castilles wrongful death and in the wake of Officer Yanezs acquittal, the organization finally addressed the case albeit unwillingly. On Sunday, Loesch was forced to speak about Castilles death during a heated debate withWomens March co-organizer Tamika Mallory on CNN. On behalf of the NRA, Loesch called his deathabsolutely awful anda terrible tragedy that could have been avoided. Loesch concluded her statement, telling viewers, There are a lot of variables in this particular case and there were a lot of things that I wish would have been done differently.Do I believe that Philando Castile deserved to lose his life over a [traffic] stop? I absolutely do not.

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Black Lives Matter activists respond to the NRA's terrifying propaganda ads An error occurred. - Salon