UN panel accuses Trump ally Erik Prince of violating Libya arms embargo alongside UAE companies

Prince soared to notoriety in 2007 after employees of the controversial security firm he founded, Blackwater, shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians

He now heads a private equity fund focused on frontier emerging markets, and has previously been accused of acting as a backchannel for Trump

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Erik Prince pictured in Hong Kong in 2014. Photo: SCMP

Published: 2:33pm, 21 Feb 2021Updated: 2:35pm, 21 Feb 2021

American security contractor Erik Prince, a close ally of former US President Donald Trump, violated the United Nations arms embargo against Libya along with three United Arab Emirates-based companies and their top managers during an operation to help a rebel military commander take the capital Tripoli, UN experts have said.

In a key section of a report to the UN Security Council obtained on Saturday by Associated Press, the panel of experts outlined “a well-funded private military company operation” called “Project Opus” designed to provide military equipment to eastern-based commander Khalifa Hifter.

“The Project Opus plan also included a component to kidnap or terminate individuals regarded as high value targets in Libya,” the experts said.

Oil-rich Libya was plunged into chaos after a 2011 Nato-backed uprising toppled long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi and split the country between a UN-supported government in Tripoli and rival authorities based in the country’s east, each side backed by an array of local militias as well as regional and foreign powers.

In April 2019, Hifter and his forces, backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, launched an offensive to try and capture Tripoli. His campaign collapsed after Turkey stepped up its military support of the UN-supported government with hundreds of troops and thousands of Syrian mercenaries. An October ceasefire agreement has led to an agreement on a transitional government and elections scheduled for December 24.

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