26 Oct 2018 - NPWJ News Digest on Libya

Articles

UNICEF delivers 4.7m vaccines for children in Libya
Middle East Monitor, 26 Oct 2018

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said yesterday that a total of 4.7 million vaccines reached Libya yesterday. The delivery is part of a nationwide vaccination campaign aimed at immunising 2.75 million vulnerable children in the country. “The third UNICEF-chartered plane has arrived at Mitiga airport, Tripoli, completing the delivery of a total 4.7 million doses of Measles, Rubella and Polio vaccines, as well as 2.75 million doses of Vitamin A supplement, syringes and safety boxes,” UNICEF said in a statement on its website.

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Libyan wealth fund: frozen assets should not go to IRA victims
The Guardian, 25 Oct 2018

A bill that proposes using assets frozen during Libya’s civil war to compensate victims of the IRA would hinder the country’s efforts to rebuild, the head of its sovereign wealth fund has said. London banks hold an estimated £12bn of Libyan funds after the UN ordered that they be frozen in 2011 to prevent their theft or misuse during the war that toppled Col Muammar Gaddafi. Under proposals in a bill scheduled for debate in the House of Commons on Friday, some of the funds would be diverted to victims of the IRA from the period when it was funded and supported by Gaddafi’s regime. The chief executive of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) has written to Alistair Burt, the minister for the Middle East, insisting the money belongs to the Libyan people.

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Libya's Oil Supremo Expects Output to Reach Qaddafi-Era Levels
Bloomberg, 24 Oct 2018

Libya, one of the most volatile and politically fragmented oil producers, expects to pump as much crude by the end of next year as it did before the 2011 revolt against former strongman Moammar Al Qaddafi. The country plans to refurbish its pipeline network and raise output at some fields to reach a target of 1.6 million barrels a day, National Oil Corp. Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in an interview. The North African nation currently pumps 1.25 million barrels a day, he said in the eastern city of Benghazi.

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Libya hopes rare Benghazi oil conference will mend rifts
Reuters, 24 Oct 2018

Libya held a rare oil conference in the eastern city of Benghazi on Wednesday as its state oil firm NOC reached out to a region home to a parallel government backing a rival oil firm. The “Benghazi Oil and Gas Exhibition and Forum” is the first international business conference in Libya’s second-largest city since 2014 when it turned into a battlefield. Forces of Khalifa Haftar declared victory in July 2017 over Islamists, ending four years of fighting that destroyed parts of the port city. Hotels and Benghazi airport have reopened but several bombings killed dozens of people this year, forcing organizers to postpone the conference until security had improved.

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