TOBRUK (Sputnik) — On Friday, the Reuters news agency alleged that the Russian firm RSB-group had completed the task of removing mines from an industrial facility near the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. Commander of the operational headquarters of the Libyan Air Force Brig. Gen. Mohammed Manfour told Sputnik earlier in the day that Libya had no contracts with Russian private military companies.
"The Benghazi Cement Plant is a complex of factories situated in the city’s south in the al-Hawari district. The contract was signed with a Libyan cement company and not with the Libyan armed forces. The company has an agreement with an English insurance company, which demanded clearing the facility from mines, explosives and remnants of military operations," Mismari said.
The crisis in Libya started after the beginning of the civil war and the overthrow of the government of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. In 2015, Libya’s rival governments, the Council of Deputies based in Tobruk and the Tripoli-based General National Congress, signed the Skhirat peace agreement. However, there are still numerous differencies between Tripoli and the parliament elected in Tobruk in 2014 and controlling vast territories and oil infrastructure in the country's eastern part.