15th April, 2025
Today, the New African Charter
International (NACI) solemnly commemorates the 39th
anniversary of the tragic bombing of Libya’s two peaceful
cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. On April 15, 1986, the
United States launched air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi,
Libya, which the Reagan administration in Washington claimed
to be a response to a prior attack on a Berlin Discotheque
in Germany that resulted in the deaths of American
servicemen. The US government attributed the Berlin bombing
to what they said: ‘Libyan support for
terrorism’.
This military operation, which was
codenamed Operation El Dorado Canyon, targeted the
residences of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli and
Benghazi. The US attacked was launched in the early morning
hours of April 15, 1986. Over 100 aircraft from the United
States Navy and United States Air Force took part in the
attack on Libya’s two main cities. Reports said were USAF
F-111 were lost, but accuracy of Libyan casualty figures are
yet to be made public, 39 years after that spurious
attack.
The US airstrikes resulted in the deaths of 63
Africans, including Hannah Gaddafi-the daughter of Muammar
Gaddafi. Thirty-nine (39) years have passed since that
fateful incident on the African soil. We honour the memory
of the 63 innocent Africans, the African brothers and
sisters who were brutally killed in the attack and we
reaffirm our commitment to keep faith with the families of
victims caught in that attack.
Our fallen African
brothers and sisters will be remembered today with moments
of silence across Africa and the African diasporas. What is
more illuminating in this statement is that, nowhere in
Africa or the African diasporas are the memories of these
fallen African martyrs more compelling than the cities of
Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya. We will remember these fallen
African martyrs forever as truly the best of
humanity.
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On this day of 39th anniversary of the US
bombing of Libya, the New African Charter International
enjoins all Africans everywhere on the planet to pray for
the eternal rest of the souls of the departed and for more
long and healthy lives for the injured survivors who are
still living. As always, we recognise the extraordinary
fortitude and determination of those living survivors, many
of whom suffered permanent disability and trauma, when they
supposed to live comfortable lives today.
Since the
overthrow of King Idris in Libya by a group of Military
Officers led by Muammar Gaddafi, and the dawn of the
September 1 Al-Fateh revolution in 1969, the relationship
between the United States and the North African nation
became sour. The relations was so tense, and characterised
by trading in allegations and
counter-allegations.
This relationship between the two
African nations came to a hard-hit in 1986, when the US
government alleged that Libya was responsible for the
bombing of the La Belle Discotheque in West Berlin on April
5, killing, which killed one U.S. soldier and wounding more
than 200 people. Operation Eldorado Canyon was a long range
strike deep into Libyan territory, and was tailored at the
48th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) in England.
This
operation started when 24 US Air Force F-111s departed the
Royal Air Force (RAF) Base in Lakenheath, in the United
Kingdom along with five other EF-111s from RAF Heyford,
according to reports at our disposal. The F-111s faced a
3,500 mile flight with four aerial refuelling each way due
to flight restrictions. As the aircraft approached Libya,
two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, the USS Coral Sea and the
USS America, launched 14 A-6E strike aircraft and 12 F/A-18
and A-7 strike support aircraft.
In the context of the
39th anniversary of the 15th April, 1986 US bombing of the
Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi, we make this
statement bold and as follows, that NATO invasion and
genocidal campaign, which started in March 2011 was aimed at
killing Muammar Gaddafi, the same way they plotted and
assassinated other progressive African leaders on the
continent. In our view the current situation in Libya would
have been averted if NATO members and allies had respect for
the human rights of African people, in the first
place.
We support Libya’s affirmation of its
political independence and economic sovereignty. The
continued looting of the African people’s natural
resources and wealth in Libya must end now.
We demand
an end to the colonisation and military occupation of Libya
by NATO backed terrorist outfits. We oppose the logic of
foreign criminal adventurers, such as the so-called Islamic
terrorist outfits, deciding on the future direction of the
African continent. We take this position because we know
that the freedom of Libya is tied to the emergence of a
pluralist, peaceful and democratic nation of dignified
people.
NATO’s continued aggression and threats to
Africa, progressive African leaders and people must end. The
continued destruction and rape of the wealth of Libya must
end. NACI has always been, and continue to be against any
logic of fake counter-terrorist military blocs. We therefore
demand an immediate and unconditional dismantling of all
unwanted foreign military bases and the non-return of their
military personnel to Africa.
In our struggle against
imperialism and for the independence and sovereignty of
Africa, we fight for the defeat of NATO’s project in
Libya; the collapse of France’s project in the Sahel
region; the disappearance of Algeria’s Zionism in the
Sahel region; the burial of Ukraine’s terrorism in the
Sahel region; and as well, we advocate respect and integrity
of the political and economic sovereignty of Africa.
Furthermore, we advocate peace, security and stability in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and for the unity
of the African continent.
We reaffirm such a programme
for the thirty-ninth (39th) anniversary of the US bombing of
Libya, as we continue to advocate peace, stability and
freedom in Libya. We call for an end to assassination of
progressive African leaders on the continent and the
diasporas; and as well as, also, for an end to western
nations’ germ warfare in Africa. We will continue to
support Africans in Libya in their struggle for democratic
transformation, the development and prosperity of their
nation.
Signed by:
Alimamy Bakarr
Sankoh
President and co-founder
The New African
Charter International
(NACI)
