On 9 August, Haftar delivered a strong speech to soldiers from the Benina military base, in the eastern part of the country. “The Libyan army will never bow down to a civilian power that has not been elected by the people,” he said from the lectern. This was a reaction to the announcement that the presidential council had made the day before: that it was the only body authorised to order military operations.
The general’s statement made a mockery of the interim government of national unity (GUN), whose president Mohamed el-Menfi is – in principle – the army’s supreme commander.
It also revealed the intentions of the general who had been laying low for the past few months.
Repositioning in the east
Source: The Africa Report
