The wave of al-Qaeda fighters ousted from Mali was already a danger for Libya. Now that silent cells affiliated with Hezbollah are trying to gain a foothold in the country, an already desperate security situation is even worse.
Faraj Ahmad, a Libyan media and political activist, said, “There is no doubt that cells belonging to Hezbollah are present in Libya.”
“Iran has worked for a long time to establish a foothold in North Africa,” he said. “They are present in the African continent south of the Sahara, so how can they not be present in Egypt and Tunisia, and in particular Libya, which suffers from weak security?”
[AFP/Marwan Naamani] A Benghazi man, shown in a 2011 photo, holds the country’s old flag and a banner reading: “No Qaeda, No Hezbollah, Long live Libya.”
Talk of the Hezbollah cells comes as a spate of deadly incidents indicates that the terrorists and armed Islamists from northern Mali have found a new home in the southern Libya desert and Jebel Chaambi’s mountainous region between Algeria and Tunisia.
Everything can be found in southern Libya, according to Mohamed Oumar Gharsallah, a Libyan academic and former diplomat.
“The absence of central authority poses a problem not only in the south but in the whole country,” he said, In addition to the terrorists, “there are drug traffickers and smugglers of goods and fuel, as well as tribes and militant groups”, he noted.
And for some of these groups, Libya’s instability provides opportunity, analysts warn.
According to professor and political activist Jomaa Zayani, Shi’ites from various nationalities have profited from the security chaos in Libya to “carry out a large-scale campaign to spread Shi’ism among the country’s youth”.
More than 5,000 Libyan young people have reportedly turned to Shi’ism.
“This is a scary number, these people will be considered a strategic treasure for Hezbollah and Iran,” he said.
Libyan security forces conducted raids on “dens that were spreading Shi’ism”, Col. Ramadan Guezioui confirmed earlier this year.
“We confiscated a large number of books and publications calling for Shi’ism,” he said.
For months, the Libyan Grand Mufti has also been warning about “suspicious and bad activities by Iran inside Libya”.
Sadok Ghariani told Quryna said that books and call for Shi’ism were being “spread in the country and even distributed at some mosques”.
“They hold exhibitions to spread their ideology,” he said in early January.
“Young people are given free visits to Iran, together with gifts and accommodations at luxury hotels, in an attempt to pass incorrect ideas to them and convince them that Shi’ites are not as they were presented,” the Grand Mufti added.
Last June, Mohamed el Walid, head of the Awqaf Committee in the General National Congress (GNC), said that some preachers of Shi’ism even buy land in Libya to establish proselytising operations.
Khaled Hraieri, a Libyan businessman residing in Tunisia, does not doubt the Shi’ia outreach effort in his country and Hezbollah’s plan to reach uncontrolled young people.
Hezbollah is now turning up in Nigeria, he noted.
“They have infiltrated to Africa where most people are Christians,” he said. “How then about a Muslim country such as Libya that hasn’t yet achieved its security balance?”
Nigerian intelligence on May 30th discovered a cell connected to Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The security raid on the house in Kano uncovered weapons – and the Lebanese nationals who were allegedly preparing to use them in Nigeria.
“This house was sheltering the Hezbollah cell,” intelligence chief Basay Itang confirmed to Afrique Info.
Libya is predominantly Sunni, but Hezbollah is still making a mark. The increase in Shi’ism is most notable in the eastern region.
This includes Benghazi, which is already struggling with assassinations, car bombings, and deadly clashes between Libya Shield members and protestors. The other area where Hezbollah is making inroads is Derna.
Al-Qaeda elements have reportedly been there since 2012.
