Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of eastern Libya, on Monday called for a fair distribution of oil revenues, setting and end-of-August deadline for this to be done.
A “High Commission responsible for putting in place financial arrangements for the equitable management of public funds” and oil revenues must be set up, Marshall Haftar said in an address on Monday to officers from his army, gathered at his headquarters in Rajma, 25km east of Benghazi.
He announced “a deadline until the end of August for this commission to complete its mission.” Failing that, “the armed forces will be ready to respond to instructions when the time comes,” he warned, without giving further details.
Endowed with Africa’s most abundant oil reserves, Libya has been plunged into chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011. Since then it has been rocked by divisions between the east and west of the country.
Two governments have been vying for power there for more than a year; one led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah, based in Tripoli (west) and recognised by the UN, the other in the east, backed by the very powerful Marshall Khalifa Haftar.
On the other hand, revenue from oil, the country’s main source of income and very often at the heart of disputes between rival camps, is managed by the National Oil Company and the Central Bank, based in Tripoli.
On 24 June, Osama Hamad, head of the parallel government installed in the east, had threatened to block hydrocarbon exports, demanding the seizure of oil revenues managed by his rivals in the west.
