Who benefits from wars?

There is no fire like greed, No crime like hatred, No sorrow like separation, No sickness like hunger of heart, And no joy like the joy of freedom. Health, contentment and trust are your greatest possessions, and freedom your greatest joy. Look within. Be still. Free from fear and attachment, Know the sweet joy of living in the way. – Buddha

Any war is extremely costly. In case of financing any war, the transactions are handled by governments. The money comes from taxpayers. But who benefits from a war. And who Controls all of our money?

Governments are not abstract entities; they are composed of small number of people who make decisions affecting life of millions of other people. Often decision of one dictator or president result in death of millions of people.

War is intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents and militias.
It is generally characterized by extreme violence, aggression, destruction, and mortality, using regular or irregular military forces.
Warfare refers to the common activities and characteristics of types of war, or of wars in general.
Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant suffering and casualties.

Politicians use the term “war” to accomplish their agendas, e.g. war on communism, war for freedom, war on drugs, war on terror…

THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL MEDIA COMPLEX – KEEPING FEAR ALIVE 2020

Posted by Enough is Enough on Monday, July 20, 2020

Death Toll

All wars result in huge amount of casualties which include deaths of both soldiers and civilians from causes both directly and indirectly caused by the war, which includes combat, disease, famine, massacres, suicide, and genocide.

This is a list of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll>>

Anthropogenic means caused by humans. The list covers the name of the event, location and the start and end of each event. Some events may belong in more than one category.
In addition, some of the listed events overlap each other, and in some cases the death toll from a smaller event is included in the one for the larger event or time period of which it was part.
There is often large uncertainty about the number of deaths.

WWII

The deadliest war in history, in terms of the cumulative number of deaths since its start, is World War II, from 1939 to 1945, with 60–85 million deaths.
Most estimates of World War II casualties indicate around 60 million people died, 40 million of which were civilians.

The Vietnam War

The Vietnam war persisted from 1955 to 1975 and most of the fighting took place in South Vietnam; the war also spilled over into the neighboring countries of Cambodia and Laos which also endured casualties from aerial and ground fighting. Estimates of the total number of deaths in the Vietnam War vary widely. Guenter Lewy in 1978 estimated 1,353,000 total deaths in North and South Vietnam during the period 1965–1974 in which the U.S. was most engaged in the war.
Civilian deaths caused by both sides amounted to a significant percentage of total deaths. Civilian deaths were partly caused by assassinations, massacres and terror tactics. Civilian deaths were also caused by mortar and artillery, extensive aerial bombing and the use of firepower in military operations conducted in heavily populated areas. Some 365,000 Vietnamese civilians are estimated by one source to have died as a result of the war during the period of American involvement.

During the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971, 18.2 million gallons of Agent Orange, some of which was contaminated with Dioxin, was sprayed by the U.S. military over more than 10% of Southern Vietnam, as part of the U.S. herbicidal warfare program called Operation Ranch Hand. U.S. Air Force records show at least 6,542 spraying missions were flown in Operation Ranch Hand over South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the ten-year span of the program. The herbicides were contaminated with dioxin, a deadly compound that remains toxic for decades and causes birth defects, cancer and other illnesses.
Vietnam’s government claimed that 400,000 people were killed or maimed as a result of after effects, and that 500,000 children were born with birth defects.

The War in Afghanistan

The War in Afghanistan (2001–present), code named Operation Enduring Freedom (2001–14) and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (2015–present), followed the United States invasion of Afghanistan of 7 October 2001, when the United States of America and its allies successfully drove the Taliban from power in order to deny al-Qaeda a safe base of operations in Afghanistan. Since the initial objectives were completed, a coalition of over 40 countries (including all NATO members) formed a security mission in the country. The war has since mostly involved US and allied Afghan government troops battling Taliban insurgents. The war in Afghanistan is the longest war in US history.

A report titled Body Count put together by Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Global Survival and the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) concluded that 106,000–170,000 civilians have been killed as a result of the fighting in Afghanistan at the hands of all parties to the conflict.

Iraq War (2003- present)

Estimating war-related deaths poses many challenges. Experts distinguish between population-based studies, which extrapolate from random samples of the population, and body counts, which tally reported deaths and likely significantly underestimate casualties. Population-based studies produce estimates of the number of Iraq War casualties ranging from 151,000 violent deaths as of June 2006 (per the Iraq Family Health Survey) to over a million (per the 2007 Opinion Research Business (ORB) survey).
Other survey-based studies covering different time-spans find 461,000 total deaths (over 60% of them violent) as of June 2011 (per PLOS Medicine 2013), and 655,000 total deaths (over 90% of them violent) as of June 2006 (per the 2006 Lancet study).
Body counts counted at least 110,600 violent deaths as of April 2009 (Associated Press).
The Iraq Body Count project documents 185,000 – 208,000 violent civilian deaths through Feb 2020 in their table.
All estimates of Iraq War casualties are disputed.

Economic Benefits of a War

Another byproduct of some wars is the prevalence of propaganda by some or all parties in the conflict, and increased revenues by weapons manufacturers.

Once a war has ended, losing nations are sometimes required to pay war reparations to the victorious nations. In certain cases, land is ceded to the victorious nations.
Typically, war becomes intertwined with the economy and many wars are partially or entirely based on economic reasons. Some economists believe war can stimulate a country’s economy (high government spending for World War II is often credited with bringing the U.S. out of the Great Depression by most Keynesian economists).

Cost of a war

Any war is extremely costly. The price is not limited to the battlefield related expenses but also to various aspects of the nations involved – from huge loss of human lives to political and economic problems. Here are estimates of financial cost of few post WWII wars [information based on articles published by Wikipedia]

Economic cost of the Vietnam War

The Department of Defense (DOD) reports that the United States spent about $168 billion (worth around $950 billion in 2011 dollars) in the entire war including $111 billion on military operations (1965 – 1972) and $28.5 billion on economic and military aid to Saigon regime (1953 – 1975). At that rate, the United States spent approximately $168,000 for an “enemy” killed. However, $168 billion was only the direct cost. According to Indochina Newsletter of Asia Resource Center, the United States spent from $350 billion to $900 billion in total including veterans’ benefits and interest.

Cost of the Afghanistan War ( 2001 – present)

The cost of the war reportedly was a major factor as US officials considered drawing down troops in 2011.
The estimate for the cost of deploying one US soldier in Afghanistan is over US$1 million a year.

In March 2019, the United States Department of Defense estimated fiscal obligations of $737,592,000,000 have incurred expended during FY2001 to FY2018 in Afghanistan, at a cost of $3,714 per taxpayer. However Brown University research came up with a higher figure of $975 Billion for FY2001 to FY2019.
For FY2019, the United States Department of Defense requested ~$46,300,000,000 for Operation FREEDOM’S SENTINEL (US codename for War in Afghanistan) and Related Missions. According to “Investment in Blood”, a book by Frank Ledwidge, summations for the UK contribution to the war in Afghanistan came to £37bn ($56.46 billion).

According to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report published in October 2007, the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost taxpayers a total of $2.4 trillion by 2017 including interest.
In 2011, the independent Commission on Wartime Contracting reported to Congress that, during the previous decade in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States had lost between $31 and $60 billion to waste and fraud and that this amount may continue to increase.

Financial cost of the Iraq War (2003- present)

The Iraqi conflict (2003–present) is a long-running armed conflict that began with the 2003 invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued as an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government. The United States officially withdrew from the country in 2011, but became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition.

The costs of the 2003–2010 Iraq War are often contested, as academics and critics have unearthed many hidden costs not represented in official estimates. The most recent major report on these costs come from Brown University in the form of the Costs of War, which totaled just over $1.1 trillion. The United States Department of Defense’s direct spending on Iraq totaled at least $757.8 billion, but also highlighting the complementary costs at home, such as interest paid on the funds borrowed to finance the wars.

Those figures are dramatically higher than typical estimates published just prior to the start of the Iraq War, many of which were based on a shorter term of involvement. For example, in a March 16, 2003 Meet the Press interview of Vice President Dick Cheney, held less than a week before the Iraq War began, host Tim Russert reported that “every analysis said this war itself would cost about $80 billion, recovery of Baghdad, perhaps of Iraq, about $10 billion per year. We should expect as American citizens that this would cost at least $100 billion for a two-year involvement.”

Iraq War profiteers

One of the top profiteers from the Iraq War was oil field services corporation, Halliburton.
Halliburton gained $39.5 billion in “federal contracts related to the Iraq war”.
Many individuals have asserted that there were profit motives for the Bush-Cheney administration to invade Iraq in 2003.

Cost of the War on Terror

The War on Terror, also known as the Global War on Terrorism, is an international military campaign launched by the United States government after the September 11 attacks. The targets of the campaign are primarily Sunni Islamist fundamentalist armed groups located throughout the Muslim world, with the most prominent groups being Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, the Taliban, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, and the various franchise groups of the former two organizations.
The naming of the campaign uses a metaphor of war to refer to a variety of actions that do not constitute a specific war as traditionally defined. U.S. president George W. Bush first used the term “war on terrorism” on 16 September 2001, and then “war on terror” a few days later in a formal speech to Congress. In the latter speech, George Bush stated, “Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them.” The term was originally used with a particular focus on countries associated with al-Qaeda.

The War on Terror, spanning decades, is a multitrillion-dollar war.
According to the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute, the War on Terror will have cost $5.6 trillion for operations between 2001-2018 plus anticipated future costs of veterans’ care.

According to the Soufan Group in July 2015, the U.S. government was spending $9.4 million per day in operations against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
A March 2011 Congressional report estimated war spending through the fiscal year 2011 at $1.2 trillion, and future spending through 2021 (assuming a reduction to 45,000 troops) at $1.8 trillion. A June 2011 academic report covering additional areas of war spending estimated it through 2011 at $2.7 trillion, and long-term spending at $5.4 trillion including interest. In direct costs, the United States Department of Defense reports spending $1.5 trillion from 2001 to March 2019 in war costs in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.

Are these wars legal?

Legal Standards Governing Pre-Emptive Strikes and Forcible Measures of Anticipatory Self-Defense under the U.N. Charter and General International Law.

Historically, the United States had never unilaterally attacked another nation militarily prior to its fIrst having been attacked or prior to its citizens or interests fIrst having been attacked. This posture has changed permanently. On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush of the United States announced the expansive “Bush Doctrine,” when he declared:

“Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated. Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. “

In the same manner, Vice President Dick Cheney declared before the National Association of Home Builders on June 6, 2002 thus:

“… we also realize that wars are not won on the defensive. We must take the battle to the enemy and, where necessary, preempt grave threats to our country before they materialize. “

On August 26,2002, before the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention, Vice President Dick Cheney went on and declared as well that:

… containment is not possible when dictators obtain weapons of mass destruction, and are prepared to share them with terrorists who intend to inflict catastrophic casualties on the United States.

https://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1100&context=annlsurvey

Truth:

Financial Transaction

A financial transaction is an agreement, or communication, carried out between a buyer and a seller to exchange an asset for payment.

It involves a change in the status of the finances of two or more businesses or individuals.
The buyer and seller are separate entities or objects, often involving the exchange of items of value, such as information, goods, services, and money.
It is still a transaction if the goods are exchanged at one time, and the money at another.
This is known as a two-part transaction: part one is giving the money, part two is receiving the goods.

A financial transaction always involves one or more financial asset. Either buyer or seller can initiates such a transaction, hence one is the originator/initiator and the other is the responder. From liquidity point of view, one is the liquidity provider, the other party is the liquidity consumer. The liquidity provider is also called offer and the liquidity consumer is also called taker.

Who receives benefits from a war?

In case of financing any war, the transactions are handled by governments.
The money comes from taxpayers and goes to sellers: “the military industrial complex“.

Note: the “military industrial complex” is not an abstract entity – there are specific people who in the end increase their personal fortunes.

The military–industrial complex (MIC) is an informal alliance between a nation’s military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy. A driving factor behind this relationship between the government and defense-minded corporations is that both sides benefit—one side from obtaining war weapons, and the other from being paid to supply them.

The term is most often used in reference to the system behind the military of the United States, where it is most prevalent due to close links between defense contractors, the Pentagon and politicians and gained popularity after a warning on its detrimental effects in the farewell address of President Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 17, 1961.

The military–industrial complex

President of the United States (and five-star general during World War II) Dwight D. Eisenhower used the term in his Farewell Address to the Nation on January 17, 1961:

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction…

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together. [emphasis added]

In the context of the United States, the appellation is sometimes extended to military–industrial–congressional complex (MICC), adding the U.S. Congress to form a three-sided relationship termed an iron triangle. These relationships include political contributions, political approval for military spending, lobbying to support bureaucracies, and oversight of the industry; or more broadly to include the entire network of contracts and flows of money and resources among individuals as well as corporations and institutions of the defense contractors, private military contractors, The Pentagon, the Congress and executive branch.

The Federal Reserve System

The Federal Reserve System (also known as the Federal Reserve or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America.
It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a series of financial panics (particularly the panic of 1907) led to the desire for central control of the monetary system in order to alleviate financial crises. Over the years, events such as the Great Depression in the 1930s, the Great Recession during the 2000s, and the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, have led to the expansion of the roles and responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System.

The Federal Reserve System is composed of several layers. It is governed by the presidentially appointed board of governors or Federal Reserve Board (FRB). Twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, located in cities throughout the nation, regulate and oversee privately owned commercial banks. Nationally chartered commercial banks are required to hold stock in, and can elect some of the board members of, the Federal Reserve Bank of their region. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) sets monetary policy. It consists of all seven members of the board of governors and the twelve regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents, though only five bank presidents vote at a time (the president of the New York Fed and four others who rotate through one-year voting terms). There are also various advisory councils. Thus, the Federal Reserve System has both public and private components. It has a structure unique among central banks, and is also unusual in that the United States Department of the Treasury, an entity outside of the central bank, prints the currency used.

Observe text on each printed paper bill (banknote): Federal Reserve Note.
During the Fiscal Year 2013, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing
delivered 6.6 billion notes at an average cost of 5.0 cents per note

Although an instrument of the US Government, the Federal Reserve System considers itself “an independent central bank because its monetary policy decisions do not have to be approved by the President or anyone else in the executive or legislative branches of government, it does not receive funding appropriated by Congress, and the terms of the members of the board of governors span multiple presidential and congressional terms.

[ source: wikipedia ]

Who Controls All of Our Money?

Links

https://blog.world-mysteries.com/science/war-and-peace/

New World Order

This video explains XXth century history ( wars and revolutions) as an unfolding of the long term plans of Illuminati conspiracy leading towards the New World Order:

https://www.facebook.com/IIKAAOPILI/videos/969775983443010/

PS List of wars involving the United States of America

Source: wikipedia

The entire list is very long…

Notice that none of these wars involved USA territory (location).

Here are just post-WWII wars, invasions and military conflicts involving the USA

Korean War
(1950–1953) Part of the Cold War
Location: Korea

Laotian Civil War
(1953–1975) Part of the Indochina Wars and Cold War
Location: Laos

Lebanon Crisis
(1958) Location: Lebanon

Bay of Pigs Invasion
(1961) Part of the Cold War
Location: Cuba

Simba rebellion, Operation Dragon Rouge
(1964) Part of the Congo Crisis and the Cold War
Location: Congo

Vietnam War
(1955–1964, 1965–1973, 1974–1975)
Part of the Cold War and Indochina Wars
Location: Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos

Communist insurgency in Thailand
(1965–1983) Part of the Cold War
Location: Thailand

Korean DMZ Conflict
(1966–1969) Part of the Korean conflict and the Cold War
Location: Korean Demilitarized Zone

Dominican Civil War
(1965–1966) Location: Dominican Republic

Insurgency in Bolivia
(1966–1967) Part of the Cold War
Location: Bolivia

Cambodian Civil War
(1967–1975) Part of the Cold War
Location: Cambodia

War in South Zaire
(1978) Part of the Cold War
Location: Zaire

Gulf of Sidra encounter
(1981) Location: Gulf of Sidra

Multinational Intervention in Lebanon
(1982–1984) Location: Lebanon

Invasion of Grenada
(1983) Part of the Cold War
Location: Grenada

Action in the Gulf of Sidra
(1986) Location: Gulf of Sidra

Bombing of Libya
(1986) Location: Libya

Tanker War
(1987–1988) Location: Persian Gulf

Tobruk encounter
(1989) Location: Mediterranean Sea

Invasion of Panama
(1989–1990) Location: Panama

Gulf War
(1990–1991) Location: Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Israel

Iraqi No-Fly Zone Enforcement Operations
(1991–2003) Location: Iraq

First U.S. Intervention in the Somali Civil War
(1992–1995) Part of the Somali civil war (1991–present)
Location: Somalia

Bosnian War
(1992–1995) Part of the Yugoslav Wars
Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Intervention in Haiti
(1994–1995) Location: Haiti

Kosovo War
(1998–1999) Part of the Yugoslav Wars
Location: Serbia

Operation Infinite Reach
(1998) Location: Sudan and Afghanistan

War in Afghanistan
(2001–present) Part of the War on Terror and the War in Afghanistan (1978–present)
Location: Afghanistan

2003 invasion of Iraq
(2003) Part of the War on Terror
Location: Iraq

Iraq War
(2003–2011) Part of the War on Terror
Location: Iraq

War in North-West Pakistan
(2004–present) Part of the War on Terror
Location: Pakistan

Second U.S. Intervention in the Somali Civil War
(2007–present) Part of the Somali Civil War (1991–present) and the War on Terror
Location: Somalia and Northeastern Kenya

Operation Ocean Shield
(2009–2016) Part of the War on Terror
Location: Indian Ocean

International intervention in Libya
(2011) Part of the Libyan Crisis and the First Libyan Civil War
Location: Libya

Operation Observant Compass
(2011–2017) Part of the War on Terror
Location: Uganda

American-led intervention in Iraq
(2014–present) Part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the Iraqi Civil War, the Spillover of the Syrian Civil War, the War on Terror and the International ISIS campaign

Location: Iraq

American-led intervention in Syria
(2014–present) Part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the Syrian Civil War, the War on Terror and the International ISIS campaign

Location: Syria

Yemeni Civil War
(2015–present) Part of the War on Terror and the International ISIS Campaign

Location: Yemen

American intervention in Libya
(2015–present) Part of the Second Libyan Civil War, the War on Terror, and the International ISIS Campaign

Location: Libya

PS Libyan Crisis ( 2011 – Present )

Background

The history of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi spanned 42 years from 1969 to 2011. Gaddafi became the de facto leader of the country on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of young Libyan military officers against King Idris I in a nonviolent revolution and bloodless coup d’état. After the king had fled the country, the Libyan Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) headed by Gaddafi abolished the monarchy and the old constitution and proclaimed the new Libyan Arab Republic, with the motto “freedom, socialism, and unity”.

After coming to power, the RCC government took control of all petroleum companies operating in the country and initiated a process of directing funds toward providing education, health care and housing for all. Despite the reforms not being entirely effective, public education in the country became free and primary education compulsory for both sexes. Medical care became available to the public at no cost, but providing housing for all was a task that the government was not able to complete. Under Gaddafi, per capita income in the country rose to more than US$11,000, the fifth-highest in Africa. The increase in prosperity was accompanied by a controversial foreign policy and increased political repression at home.

The Libyan Crisis refers to the ongoing conflicts in Libya, beginning with the Arab Spring protests of 2011, which led to a civil war, foreign military intervention, and the ousting and death of Muammar Gaddafi. The civil war’s aftermath and proliferation of armed groups led to violence and instability across the country, which erupted into renewed civil war in 2014. The ongoing crisis in Libya has so far resulted in tens of thousands of casualties since the onset of violence in early 2011.
During both civil wars, the output of Libya’s economically crucial oil industry collapsed to a small fraction of its usual level, with most facilities blockaded or damaged by rival groups, despite having the largest oil reserves of any African country.

U.S. President Barack Obama stated on 11 April 2016 that not preparing for a post-Gaddafi Libya was probably the “worst mistake” of his presidency.

Presidents Obama, G.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton (Photo by Shelley Lipton/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Effects of the war

As of February 2015, damage and disorder from the war has been considerable. There are frequent electric outages, little business activity, and a loss in revenues from oil by 90%.
Over 4,000 people have died from the fighting, and some sources claim nearly a third of the country’s population has fled to Tunisia as refugees.

Since Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar had captured the ports of Libya’s state-run oil company, the National Oil Corporation, in Es Sider and Ra’s Lanuf, oil production has risen from 220,000 barrels a day to about 600,000 barrels per day.

The war has prompted a considerable number of the country’s sizeable foreign labour force to leave the country as extremist groups such as ISIL have targeted them; prior to the 2011, the Egyptian Ministry of Labour estimated that there were two million Egyptians working in the country yet since the escalation of attacks on Egyptian labourers the Egyptian Foreign Ministry estimates more than 800,000 Egyptians have left the country to return to Egypt. Land mines remain a persistent threat in the country as numerous militias, especially ISIL, have made heavy use of land mines and other hidden explosives; the rapidly changing front lines has meant many of these devices remain in areas out of active combat zones; civilians remain the primary casualties inflicted by land mines with mines alone killing 145 people and wounding another 1,465 according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

In a report, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) revealed that it had registered over 45,600 refugees and asylum seekers in Libya during 2019. The World Food Programme reported that an estimated 435,000 people had been forcibly displaced from their homes during the conflict.

On 22 October 2019, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that children have been suffering from different sorts of malnutrition in the war-torn nations, including Libya.

Executive Director of UNICEF said on 18 January 2020, that thousands of Libyan children were at risk of being killed due to the ongoing conflict in Libya. Since hostile clashes between the Libyan government and Haftar’s LNA forces (backed by the UAE and Egypt) have broken out in Tripoli and western Libya, conditions of children and civilians have worsened.

The blockade on Libya’s major oil fields and production units by Haftar’s forces has sown losses of over $255 million within the six-day period ending 23 January, according to the National Oil Corporation in Libya. The NOC and ENI, which runs Mellitah Oil & Gas in Libya, have suffered a production loss of 155,000 oil barrels per day due to the blockade on production facilities imposed by Haftar’s LNA. The entities claim losing revenue of around $9.4mn per day.

Since the beginning of Libyan conflict, thousands of refugees forced to live in detention centres are suffering from mental health problems, especially women and children, who are struggling to confront the deaths of their family members in the war.

On 7 February 2020, the UNHCR reported that the overall number of migrants intercepted by the Libyan coast guard in, January, surged 121% against the same period in 2019. The ongoing war has turned the country into a huge haven for migrants fleeing violence and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.

On 6 April, an armed group invaded a control station in Shwerif, the Great Man-Made River project, stopped water from being pumped to Tripoli, and threatened the workers. The move by the armed group was a way to pressure and force the release the of detained family members. On 10 April 2020, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Libya, Yacoub El Hillo condemned the water supply cutoff as “particularly reprehensible”.

On 21 April 2020, the UN took in to consideration the “dramatic increase” of shelling on densely populated areas of Tripoli, and claimed that continuation of war is worsening the humanitarian situation of Libya. The organisation also warned that such activities could possibly lead to war crimes.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) in its first quarter report for 2020 on the civilian casualty in Libya cited that approximately 131 casualties have taken place between 1 January and 31 March 2020. The figures included 64 deaths and 67 injuries, all of which were a result of the ground fighting, bombing and targeted killing led by Khalifa Haftar’s army, the LNA, backed by the United Arab Emirates.

On 5 May 2020, The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, raised concerns over the continuous spree of attacks by Haftar on Tripoli. The prosecutor said that actions endanger lives and also warned of possible war crimes, due to current state of affairs. “Of particular concern to my Office are the high numbers of civilian casualties, largely reported to be resulting from airstrikes and shelling operations,” she expressed in a statement.

Foreign countries involvement

United Arab Emirates. In June 2019 the GNA discovered a cache of US-made Javelin anti-tank missiles in a captured LNA base in the mountains south of Tripoli. Markings on the missiles’ shipping containers indicate that they were originally sold to Oman and the United Arab Emirates in 2008. Emirati forces, who previously conducted airstrikes on Islamist targets in Libya, were suspected of backing General Khalifa Haftar. The United States State Department and Defense Department stated they have opened investigations into how the weapons ended up on the Libyan battlefield.^[287]^[288] The Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement denying ownership of weapons found in Libya and stated that it supported United Nations-led efforts to broker a political solution to the conflict.^[289] France later released a statement that the missiles found in the base belonged to France, and that they were damaged and out of use.^[290] Nevertheless, the UAE has been identified as a strong supporter of Khalifa Haftar and the LNA, which saw the Libyan general and his forces as the best bulwark to contain and combat various Islamist groups in the war torn country; the UN reported that the UAE supplied Haftar’s forces with aircraft, over 100 armoured vehicles and over US$200 million in aid.^[291] According to The Libya Observer, a covert deal between Khalifa Haftar and figures from the Muammar Gaddafi-era, Revolutionary Committees, was signed in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Both the parties agreed to share power in Libya, enabling Gaddafi’s loyalists to retrieve power in return for supporting Haftar in the ongoing fighting.^[292] According to a French Intelligence website, UAE supplied around 3,000 tons of military equipment to Haftar forces in late January 2020. The transit operation was completed through “Antonov 124” aircraft owned by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and operated by Makassimos Air Cargo Company.^[293] In April 2020, it was reported that the United Arab Emirates secretly purchased an advanced missile system from Israel. The UAE, which had been supplying weapons to Khalifa Haftar in the Libyan civil war, also deployed the Israeli-made missile system in the war through the LNA.^[294] On 20 April 2020, the Financial Times reported the suspected violation of an international arms embargo by the United Arab Emirates. It reported the claims after reviewing documents that cited 11,000 tonnes of jet fuel shipment worth nearly $5 million was sent by the UAE to Khalifa Haftar-controlled eastern Libya in March 2020. The shipment is currently under probe by a panel of experts from the United Nations.^[295] According to Human Rights Watch, on 18 November 2019, the UAE launched a drone attack on a biscuit factory in Al-Sunbulah that killed 8 civilians and injured 27. The factory was shut down after the attack. According to an investigation led by Human Rights Watch, the factory had no military presence. The remnants of four laser-guided missiles – Blue Arrow-7 (BA-7) – were found, which were launched via a Wing Long -II drone.^[296] On 1 May 2020, Anadolu Agency citing a source said that an Emirati delegation visited the Sudanese capital Khartoum to assist Khalifa Haftar by convincing Sudanese officials to send fighters to Libya. “The visit came as Haftar’s allies have become unable to send more mercenaries to help the Libyan general in his Tripoli battle,” the statement from the source read.^[297] In May 2020, a confidential report by the United Nations revealed that the UAE had been supporting the mission of Khalifa Haftar through two Dubai-based companies, Lancaster 6 DMCC and Opus Capital Asset Limited FZE. These firms deployed a team of 20 Western mercenaries led by South African national Steve Lodge to Libya for a “well funded private military company operation” in June 2019.^[298] The Dubai firms, registered at free zones in the UAE, reportedly financed and directed the operation to provide Haftar’s forces with drones, helicopters and cyber capabilities through a complex network of shell companies. While Opus Capital Asset is headed by a Dubai-based British national Amanda Perry, Lancaster 6 operates under a former Australian air force pilot Christian Durrant, who until 2016 worked for Frontier Services Group, founded by Erik Prince.^[299]
The United States has been active in post-2011 Libya with the military carrying out sporadic airstrikes and raids in the country, predominantly against Islamist groups. In 2014, U.S. commandos seized an oil tanker bound for anti-government militias and returned it to the Libyan national government.^[300] Two months later, the U.S. embassy in Tripoli was evacuated due to a heavy militia presence in the capital.^[301] In 2015, U.S. warplanes killed the head of the Islamic State in Libya in a strike.^[302] In 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama stated that not preparing for a post-Gaddafi Libya was the “worst mistake” of his presidency.^[303] On 19 January 2017, the day before President Obama left office, the United States bombed two IS camps in Libya, reportedly killing 80 militants.^[304] These types of operations have continued under the Trump administration with a September 2017 airstrike killing an estimated 17 IS militants.^[305] On 25 September 2019, airstrike carried out by the U.S. killed 11 suspected ISIL militants in the town of Murzuq, Libya. This was the second airstrike in a week against the militant group, according to U.S. Africa Command.^[306] A U.S. military air-raid, on 27 September, killed 17 suspected ISIL militants in southwest Libya, making it a third strike against the militia group within a month.^[307] On 30 September, US Africa Command said it conducted an airstrike in southern Libya that killed 7 ISIL militants, alongside the Government of National Accord. This marked the fourth raid in the region against ISIL in two weeks.^[308] On 10 February 2020, at least six Libyan families sued Haftar and the UAE government in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia for committing war crimes in Libya. The families of victims who were either killed, injured or faced attempted killings, demanded $1 billion in damages, said the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Martin F. McMahon & Associates.^[309]

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