A new UN report said Libya's ability to prevent the flow of weapons into and out of the chaotic country is "almost nonexistent," and it calls for the tightening of an arms embargo that the government says must be loosened so it can defend itself, Fox News reported on Monday.
The report by a panel of experts also recommends the creation of a maritime monitoring force to help Libya's government prevent both the flow of weapons and the illegal export of the country's oil. The country has Africa's largest proven reserves of crude.
The international community is alarmed by the recent emergence of Daesh group-affiliated fighters in the north African country, which is divided by two rival governments and multiple militias. But the United States and others worry that any weapons provided to the fragile Western-backed government, which is competing with an Islamist-backed rival, would quickly fall into the wrong hands.
Libya this month asked the UN Security Council to lift the arms embargo on the country, shortly after fighters linked to the Islamic State group beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in the group's deadliest attack so far outside Iraq and Syria.
Most permanent members of the council say they would rather see a unified government in Libya first, although U.N. efforts toward that goal have had little progress so far.
Source: MENA