Khalifa Haftar CIA/American Citizen “Libyan Warlord” Creates Sudanese Nightmare

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This article mentions he had a phone call from then President Trump. However, I’m certain he’s spoke with any number of US leaders from both sides of the aisle.

Haftar, a former general under Moammar Gadhafi's regime, had to seek safety with the CIA after he broke with the late dictator. He lived in exile for 20 years, attaining U.S. citizenship and settling in Virginia. He returned to Libya after Gadhafi was toppled in 2011 by forces backed by NATO airstrikes.

2017

European leaders are embracing a Libyan general who has ordered his soldiers to commit war crimes

Haftar is a dual Libyan-US citizen who was once loyal to Muammar Gaddafi but then rebelled against the dictator. He was provided protection by the CIA around 1990 and was granted US citizenship. He lived in Virginia for two decades, where he reportedly trained in anticipation of a coup against Gaddafi

The Guardian

As Khalifa Haftar’s influence emerges, analysts warn the area could be a battleground for multiple players

The Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar helped to prepare the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a militia now fighting for control of Sudan, for battle in the months before the devastating violence that broke out on 15 April, the Observer has been told by former officials, militia commanders and sources in Sudan and the UK.

The involvement of Haftar, who runs much of the eastern part of Libya, will raise fears of a long-drawn-out conflict in Sudan fuelled by outside interests. Analysts have described a “nightmare scenario” of multiple regional actors and powers fighting a proxy war in the country of more than 45 million people.

A new effort to impose a ceasefire on warring factions in Sudan appeared to be failing on Saturday, with continued fighting, airstrikes and bombardment in Khartoum, the capital. There were also renewed clashes in the Darfur region, in the south-west. More than 400 people are known to have died in the conflict so far, though the true toll is believed to be much higher. The conflict has pitted army units loyal to Sudan’s military ruler, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, against the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is the deputy head of the ruling council. Both believe they can seize unchallenged control of Sudan’s resources and its crumbling, but still powerful, state.

Haftar’s connection with Hemedti goes back to well before the fall of Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s veteran authoritarian ruler, after months of popular protests in 2019. However, the relationship has grown warmer in recent years, with Hemedti sending mercenaries to Libya to fight alongside Haftar’s military force, the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), the sources said.

Hemedti and Haftar have also collaborated on a range of highly profitable smuggling operations, with middle-ranking commanders in both their militias forging close links as they manage the transit of valuable illicit cargos between the two countries, experts told the Observer.

What could those “valuable illicit cargos” be? People? Organs? Drugs?

Sudan and Libya sit astride major routes for human trafficking, narcotics and much else.

Yup!

The Guardian article purports that Haftar is supported by Russia. I’m sure they have relations, BUT, not like Haftar and the US have meetings and long, long term ties.

Haftar is a polarising figure, whose enemies accuse him of war crimes during Libya’s 2014-20 civil war. In 2019, a UN report said that a thousand Sudanese troops from the RSF had been deployed to Libya by Hemedti to help the LNA in its battle with the internationally recognised government in Tripoli.

Former and current Libyan officials told the Observer that in recent months Haftar had trained hundreds of RSF fighters, who lack experience of urban warfare, in techniques and tactics they would need in a potential battle for Khartoum and other cities.

Jalel Harchaoui, an expert on Libya and associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said support from Haftar and his sponsors would be carefully judged. “They want [Hemedti] to survive, at least … Fuel makes more sense than weapons or ammunition and is the surest thing [Hemedti] could get from Libyan friends,” Harchaoui said.

The fuel shipments are being delivered by truck from the Mediterranean port of Benghazi, the sources said, although others suggested a likely additional origin might be the more southerly Sarir refinery, which has recently been requisitioned by the LNA. Hemedti’s forces are short of fuel because supplies to their main bases in Darfur have been cut by Burhan’s supporters in Khartoum, who still control much of the oil and petrol infrastructure in Sudan.

Most of the Sudanese mercenaries fighting for the LNA are former rivals of Hemedti and this, too, could impose limits on aid offered by Haftar, experts said.

At my big tech censored sites there are numerous reports about Haftar and his involvement with the US and the CIA