On 7 November, four participants in the 10th edition of the ‘TT Desert Rally’ were injured in an explosion of a landmine in the vicinity of Waddan, about 15 km away from the rally camp off the paved road. Their car had left the main route and entered a restricted area in the vicinity of a security forces checkpoint. All four of the injured were transported to Waddan General Hospital and are in a stable condition. Two critically injured people were subsequently airlifted to Tripoli for specialized treatment – one later died. All four are Libyans from the areas of Qasr Al-Akhyar (75 km east of Tripoli) and Zliten.
On 8 November, Saddam Haftar, Chief of Staff of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Ground Forces, ordered combat engineers to deploy to the al-Jufra oasis to clear the area in question from war remnants to protect rally partici pants and local shepherds.
On 8 November in the afternoon, another rally participant was killed in another landmine explosion. A spokesman of the ‘Emergency and Support Medical Centre’ complained that some partici pants ignore the rally organizers’ guidelines on designated routes and restricted areas.
On social media, human rights activists linked the mines with the presence of Russian mercenaries at the al-Jufra air base. According to them, the mines are part of the fortifications built by Wagner forces and are not remnants of war. The LNA blamed ISIS for having left over the mines in the al-Jufra area.