AFRICA/LIBYA - Ethnic groups and oil in the Libyan civil war

Tripoli (Agenzia Fides) - The clash between Islamist militias and so-called "nationalists" in Libya is turning into an ethnic clash with the intervention of guerrillas of the Tubu tribe of Kufra in the south of Cyrenaica, alongside the coalition of "Operation Dignity", led by General Khakifa Haftar, to free the capital, Benghazi, by Ansar Al-Sharia and by other Islamist formations.
According to the newspaper "The Libyan Herald", the Tubu, an ethnic group discriminated against under the Gaddafi regime, control 65% of the Country's oil production. Even the Tuareg, another ethnic group present in the south of Libya, control some important oil fields, those of Murzuq and Ghadames. A delegation of "Libya Dawn Operation", the Islamist coalition that took control of Tripoli, went to Obari, to negotiate the alignment of the Tuareg with the authorities laid down by them in the Libyan capital. The Tuareg, however, have maintained their neutrality in the conflict taking place in the Country.
What is feared is that Islamist groups that control Benghazi could proclaim a caliphate similar to what happened in northern Iraq and northern Nigeria. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 11/09/2014)