# Operation EU Active Surveillance to enforce Libyan arms embargo

- Link: https://www.military.africa/2020/02/operation-eu-active-surveillance-to-enforce-libyan-arms-embargo/
- Published: 2020-02-18T22:02:45+01:00
- Author: Sarah Lesedi

Operation EU Active Surveillance is the new mission agreed by the European Union
officials to deploy naval ships in order to enforce the U.N. arms embargo placed
against Libya.

The new mission was agreed by twenty-seven EU foreign ministers on 12 February and
will incorporate naval ships, planes, as well as satellites.

Operation EU Active Surveillance is expected to carry out the anti-migrant and anti-
weapons mission of ‘Operation Sophia,’ however, member states were urged to agree
on whether gathering information on and upholding, the U.N. embargo should become
Operation EU Active Surveillance “core task.”

Operation Sophia which was named after a Somali baby girl delivered aboard a German
Navy frigate was set up in 2015 to combat mass human-smuggling and to prevent loss
of life at sea.

Operation’s Sophia’s sea patrols were suspended last March, after Italy’s then government(
which backs the GNA’s administration in Tripoli), threatened to veto the entire 
operation. The mission was subsequently reduced to satellite monitoring and air 
patrols.

ADVERTISEMENT

Regarding Operation EU Active Surveillance mission, it will patrol about 60 miles(
100km) off the coast of Libya, an area of the Mediterranean that is the main route
for weapons smuggling into Libya.

 “If we want to secure the arms embargo, we have to concentrate our attention on
the eastern part of the Mediterranean where the arms are coming from,” Josep Borrell,
the EU’s foreign policy chief said, “The arms embargo is violated systematically
and is going to feed the fighters with an incredible amount of arms. This makes 
the ceasefire difficult and the [recent] truce very weak.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Libya has been [embroiled in a civil war](https://www.military.africa/2020/02/operation-eu-active-surveillance-to-enforce-libyan-arms-embargo/military.africa/2019/12/an-endgame-approaching)
since 2011 when its de facto leader and dictator Moammar Gadhafi was ousted and 
subsequently killed by a NATO-led offensive.

ADVERTISEMENT

Since then, the oil-rich north African country has sunk into chaos and turmoil. 
The warring factions are currently divided between the Government of National Accord(
GNA), a U.N.-supported government, based in the capital, Tripoli, headed by Prime
Minister Fayez Sarraj and supported by an array of militias, Turkey, Italy and Qatar
against the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by [Khalifa Haftar](https://www.military.africa/2020/02/operation-eu-active-surveillance-to-enforce-libyan-arms-embargo/military.africa/2019/04/libya-rebels-and-haftar)
and supported by United Arab Emirates and Egypt, as well as France and [Russian mercenaries.](https://www.military.africa/2020/02/operation-eu-active-surveillance-to-enforce-libyan-arms-embargo/military.africa/2019/10/new-issues-for-wagner)

Since April last year, Hafter’s Libyan Arab Armed Forces have been waging an offensive
to capture Tripoli with little success, but with high civilian and [military casualties.](https://www.military.africa/2020/02/operation-eu-active-surveillance-to-enforce-libyan-arms-embargo/military.africa/2019/06/libya-recently-delivered-mbombe-6-armoured-vehicle-captured-or-destroyed-lnas-capabilities-questioned)

Although in early January this year, world powers agreed at a [conference in Berlin](https://www.military.africa/2020/02/operation-eu-active-surveillance-to-enforce-libyan-arms-embargo/military.africa/2019/10/libya-why-berlin-conference-may-not-resolve-crises)
to respect the arms embargo against Libya, this has failed to yield any tangible
results because weapons have continued to flow into the country unabated.

 “There is a basic consensus that we now want a military operation and not a humanitarian
mission,” said Austria’s foreign minister, Alexander Schallenberg after several 
EU countries wanted to abandon Operation Sophia.

### _Related_