Nigerian President: Terrorist groups in Libya threaten all of Africa’s security

The President noted that the ongoing state of chaos and instability in Libya since the revolution of 2011 has affected the national security of African nations such as Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and others.

He also stressed that terrorism has become like a “contagion of evil” that can spread at any time, calling to all African Union members to unify and take all necessary measures to stop and defeat what he called “villains who target innocent people.”

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), during the previous offensive launched on Tripoli by Haftar’s forces, Libya was home to more than 18,000 Syrian mercenaries that include former fighters of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, it estimates that 8 thousand of those fighters remain in the country.

Despite stipulations in the ceasefire agreement signed in October that dictate all foreign fighters depart Libyan ground in three months, the United Nations recently estimated that 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries are still in Libya, violating the ceasefire agreement and threatening the country’s fragile state of peace.