The Africa Report website, specialized in African affairs, has warned of more “mercenaries and drugs being injected into Libya.” The website points to an increase in flights between Syria and Libya in recent months.
The website has indicated that Syrian Cham Wings Airways is subject to US and EU sanctions; it had made no less than nine round-trip flights between Damascus and Benghazi since the first of April. The last flight was on April 19. Cham Wings is a private airline owned by businessman Rami Makhlouf, the cousin of the regime’s president, Bashar al-Assad.
In addition, the website has pointed out that “the relations between Damascus and Latakia (on the Syrian coast) and Benghazi began in 2018. These relations have resulted in sending Syrian mercenaries to fight.” “The Africa report” has also indicated that “about 2,000 mercenaries are still in Libya.”
Thousands of Syrians who had joined the opposition factions went to Libya to fight with the Government of National Accord forces there against Khalifa Haftar’s forces. Khalifa Haftar’s forces were seeking to control the capital, Tripoli, before reaching an agreement under international sponsorship that would lead to formatting a new government, and thus reaching the point at which legislative and presidential elections can be held.
It is noteworthy that, in April 2020, the Egyptian authorities confiscated four tons of marijuana (hashish) in Port Said. The drugs were on board a Syrian merchant ship loaded with milk, and this ship belongs to the “Milkeman” company owned by Makhlouf.
