“We all agreed to create a mission to block the entry of arms into Libya,” said Italy's foreign minister, Luigi di Maio, after the meeting in Brussels. The new mission is a revival of Operation Sophia, which was launched in 2015 with the dual mission of curbing human trafficking from North Africa to Europe, while also trying to enforce the U.N. arms embargo on Libya. But few observers believe the new mission will have much impact as EU naval assets will be deployed at least 100 kilometers away from the Libyan coast. FILE - Italian Navy light aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi, seen from a helicopter, sails the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Sicily, part of the European Union's naval mission Operation Sophia, Nov. 25, 2016. Operation Sophia was named after a migrant child born on a German frigate to a Somali mother in 2015.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 18, 2020 15:22 UTC