By Sami Zaptia.
London, 21 January 2020:
The Afriqiyah Airlines Tripoli office (the headquarters) refutes claims by its Benghazi office that it is transporting Turkish-supplied fighters into western Libya. In an Afriqiyah statement posted last Sunday by the Tripoli-based Ministry of Transport, the airliner said in reply to the statement made by its eastern-based branch on 18 January that such claims were totally false.
On 18th January, Afriqiyah had issued a statement saying that the video circulating on social media purporting to show an Afriqiyah airliner transporting fighters from Turkey into western Libya was a fake. While it did not deny it was filmed onboard any of its aircraft, it suggested it was filmed outside western Libyan airport purely to tarnish its reputation and politicize its commercial activity.
In its statement, the eastern office of Afriqiyah had called upon UNSMIL to investigate this purported transport of fighters.
It will be recalled that there are similar accusations by western Libya that eastern Libyan authorities were flying in fighters through their civilian airports from Syria.
