The focus of this week’s reporting has been the migrant crises. At least 700 migrants may have died at sea this period in the busiest week of crossings from Libya towards Italy this year. Around 14,000 people have been rescued since Monday amid calm seas and there have been at least three confirmed instances of boats sinking. However, the number of dead can only be estimated based on survivor testimony, which is still being collated. Most of the boats this week appear to have left from Sabratah, where many said that smugglers had beaten them and women were raped whilst awaiting safe passage.
The international communities recent intentions to support the new UN backed government seem to be faltering slightly as France and Germany resist a bigger role in security training and want the United Nations to move first which reflects Germany's long-standing need for a U.N. mandate for military deployments abroad. Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister David Cameron responded that he would deploy a second naval ship to the region to combat the smuggling of people and arms between Libya and Europe.
Prime Minister Faiez Serraj commenced the week by trying to persuade the UAE to drop its support for the House of Representatives with both positive and negative results. This culminated with an extraordinary ministerial meeting of the Arab league. The council rejected any military intervention in Libya including its internal affairs by supplying armed groups with weapons. Any request for support must come in line the UN charter they stated.
Tripoli and the western area of Libya has seen an escalation in incidents this week for the first time since the new government arrived in Tripoli on 31 March. Clashes have occurred around Najila, west of Tripoli International Airport, Libyan National Army supported Warshefana forces on the one side and Janzour and Misratan units on the other. According to the LNA’s representative in Benghazi, Ahmed Mismari, the fighting, which started on Friday afternoon, is the beginning of the LNA’s operation to liberate Tripoli.
It was reported late Monday that the British Ambassador had arrived in Tripoli that afternoon and had meeting the minister of defence at the MOI.
Heavy fighting continues as Operation Al-Bunyan Al-Marsoos (Solid Structure) gathers momentum aiming to encircle Sirte, having moved now to within 15km of the city centre. The forces mainly from Misrata have full control of a steam plant about 15 km from central Sirte, as well as a road leading south from Sirte to Waddan. Misrata brigades have suffered some of their heaviest losses for months in recent clashes. One single truck bombing killed 32 people last week, and some 75 fighters have been killed and more than 350 injured since the start of May.
In the east, rumours pertain that General Hafter is attempting to secure the oil ports controlled by the Petroleum Forces Guard. Instead of moving against Sirte, Haftar has launched Operation Volcano against the Shura Council of Derna a group of jihadists who were instrumental in driving the Islamic State out of the city of Derna. His warplanes bombed again the headquarters at the western entrance of Derna, followed by a sortie that destroyed a tank maintenance workshop.
LNA continued conducting shelling attacks on militant positions in Al Qawarishah area, western Benghazi on Monday morning. The Medical Centre was again under mortar attack throughout the week. A small shell exploded near the hospital kitchen area, reportedly causing some material damage but no injuries. The attack came as the UN Special Envoy Martin Kobler described attacks on the hospital as a war crime
For those of you who do not already know, please see below for a brief summary on the Merger / Acquisition between SNE Special Projects, Sterling Global Operations and Janus Security International into a new company called Janus Global Operations (JGO).
SNE Special Projects (SNE) have, as part of our dynamic growth strategy, been in discussions with Janus Security International Ltd (JSI) and Sterling Global Operations Inc (SGO), providers of integrated risk management, munitions response and logistic solutions. The result of these engagements is that the three entities, SNE, JSI and SGO, are now in the process of integrating and re branding under the name of Janus Global Operations (JGO).
These events will enable JGO to offer a fully integrated solutions approach, allowing us to provide a much broader capability and a greater reach in order to meet our client’s needs in austere locations around the world including Libya & Egypt where my main focus will remain.
Our strategy is predicated on maintaining continuity and our high standard of service delivery, as well as ensuring the current leadership team in Libya and Egypt led by myself continues to interface with our clients.
The integration will bring many benefits, for example, greater levels of project and asset capitalization and the operation of a Qualify Management System which conforms to the requirements of ISO 9001: 2008 and ANSI/ASIS PSC-1 standards, as well as HSE certification with OHSAS 18001:2007 and ISO 14001:2004.
This plan has resulted in an increase in operations, projects and Janus Global’s ability to provide solutions to our clients across Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Somalia, Uganda, Nigeria, UAE, Mozambique, South Africa, Afghanistan and the USA, with prospective business in many more countries.
From a compliance and commercial perspective all current contracts with SNE will continue to run as normal in our name until the contracts either expire when we will re-engage with you at that point as JGO or we register JGO on your system and transition the contracts across. I will ensure you are kept informed on the progress of the rebranding and any changes of email addresses as and when it happens.
From a personal perspective, I am very excited and fully committed to the new company and will continue to oversee all Libya & Egypt projects for the next 3 years and the Libya country operations team led by Richie & Paul will not change either making sure that the merger has no negative impact on our current clients operations and a good level of business continuity is maintained going forward.
To find out more about our increased capability please review our new web site at http://www.Janusgo.com
If you have any questions I would welcome the opportunity to discuss and make an appointment to come and see you to discuss in more detail.
Many thanks, we look forward to supporting you in Libya, Egypt and other areas within the MEA region for many years to come.
