The 444 Brigade, an armed group affiliated with the Government of National Unity’s defense ministry, has announced an “unprecedented strike” on fuel smugglers and human traffickers in the desert.
In a message via Facebook, the Turkish-trained armed group announced the seizure of “convoys of tank trucks in the desert carrying smuggled fuel out of the country” and “cars full of irregular migrants coming from abroad to cross the sea ”.
The Libyan brigade commanded by Mahmoud Hamza, a militiaman and follower of Salafist Islam, denounced the presence of “organised international gangs from Ethiopia, Eritrea and other countries in the desert area near Fezzan, in southern Libya”. The group published images of at least seven seized tank trucks and twelve Toyota off-road vehicles on Facebook.