This Sunday, the Congolese president, who chairs the AU High Level Committee on Libya, met Sheikh Farhat Jaâbiri, who had participated in talks in 2015 in Libya.
This Saturday, June 19, according to our information, a private plane - an Embraer Legacy 600 registered F-HFKD - landed in Brazzaville. On board, a delegation accompanying Sheikh Farhat Jaâbiri, the main reference of Ibadi Islam in Africa. This Sunday noon, the religious leader met Denis Sassou N'Guesso. Chairman of the African Union (AU) High Level Committee on Libya, the Congolese president and the Ibadi leader spoke of a complex issue: the situation in Libya.
For Sassou N'Guesso, the resolution of the Libyan crisis, an "absolute urgency"
On June 4, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) held an extraordinary conference on the situation in Chad. On this occasion, the current president of ECCAS considered that the situation in Chad was suffering from the Libyan crisis. "The settlement of the Libyan crisis appears, more than ever, as an absolute urgency", affirmed Denis Sassou N'Guesso for whom "the negative impact of the presence of the terrorist groups in the south of Libya" has consequences on neighboring states.
President Sassou N'Guesso also urged the UN Security Council to take appropriate accompanying measures to facilitate the departure from Libyan territory of mercenaries and armed groups. More and more active in this file which has repercussions everywhere else around the Libyan borders, Denis Sassou N'Guesso seems to want to speed things up.
Ibadi diplomacy at work
The visit of Sheikh Farhat Jaâbiri was therefore an opportunity to tackle this complex issue. An important visit when we know what role the Ibadis played in 2015 during talks between the various parties to the conflict. Farhat Jaâbiri had been very active. His intervention brought four militias to the negotiating table. Nothing leaked from this interview, but sources close to the palace tell us that the Libyan question has been widely discussed.
Ibadism is a tendency of Islam, of the Kharidjite current, which one finds in particular in the Sultanate of Oman. In Africa, we find the Ibadites in the Maghreb, mainly in Libya but also in Algeria and Tunisia, and also in Tanzania, Kenya and more widely in Central Africa and on the east coast of southern Africa.
The Ibadis are active and use their networks to establish peace. In addition to Libya, this current took part in negotiations in Algeria, Yemen in 2019 or even during the Gulf War of 1991.