Eastern Libya’s military leader, Khalifa Haftar, has acquired what appear to be Chinese and Turkish combat drones, Reuters reporting has found, despite a long-standing UN embargo on supplying weapons to the divided North African country.

Commercial satellite images show at least three drones at Al Khadim airbase, located in the desert about 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of the city of Benghazi, between late April and December. Their arrival has not previously been reported.

What appeared to be ground control equipment for the aircraft was still visible this year, according to three weapons experts who reviewed the images.

Unmanned aerial vehicles played a significant role during a 2014-2020 civil war in Libya, when Mr Haftar’s Libyan National Army tried to overthrow the UN-recognised government in Tripoli because it was harbouring armed gangs and “terrorists”, which it denied.

Countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Russia, provided key backing to Mr Haftar, according to UN investigators, while Turkey supported the Tripoli-based administration. China avoided taking sides.

Libya’s warring factions agreed on a ceasefire in 2020, but the country remains divided between Mr Haftar’s administration in the east and the Tripoli-based government led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah in the west.

The arrival of new combat drones at Al Khadim “would be a huge symbolic win” for Mr Haftar, reinforcing his hold over the east and much of the south, including major oilfields, and strengthening his hand in negotiations to form a unified Libyan government, said Anas El Gomati, head of the Sadeq Institute, a Libyan think tank.

Mr Gomati said the weapons could also be used to defend supply lines to the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group in neighbouring Sudan. Mr Haftar has denied supporting the RSF.

Mr Haftar’s LNA is not known to have the technical expertise to pilot these kinds of drones, Mr Gomati told Reuters.

The LNA, the governments of China and Turkey, and the drone manufacturers, Xi’an-based defence company Zhongtian Feilong and Istanbul-based Baykar, did not respond to detailed questions for this article.

The Tripoli-based government also did not comment.

The Security Council committee that handles these requests did not answer questions about the drones.

The UN Department of Peacebuilding Affairs referred Reuters to a Security Council resolution last year expressing “grave concern” over continued violations of the embargo, which requires approval from the United Nations for weapons transfers to Libya.

The embargo has been in place since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising toppled long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

(Reuters/NAN)