Young men block a road with burning tyres during protests in Libya’s eastern coastal city of Benghazi on 12 September 2020. A spokesman for Gen Haftar said the administration backed peaceful protests but would not allow “terrorists and the Muslim Brotherhood” to hijack them. Gen Haftar’s forces launched an offensive to seize Tripoli in April 2019 but military support from Turkey helped government forces drive Gen Haftar’s Russian-backed troops back from the frontlines earlier this year. In early May, a leaked UN report said that hundreds of mercenaries from the Wagner Group – run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of President Putin – were operating in Libya. Since January an armed group loyal to Gen Haftar has blocked key oil fields, causing power cuts and costing Libya billions of dollars in lost exports. It was partially lifted last month to allow the sale of oil already stored in […]