Spain leads the UN rescue plan in Libya in case of emergency

The High Availability Maritime Headquarters, embarked on the Spanish Navy's amphibious assault ship

, is the command center for the rescue operation for United Nations personnel in Libya.

The plan is prepared, but it will not be activated, according to military sources, until a deterioration of the security conditions in the Maghreb country does not advise extracting the around 200 members of the UNSMIL (United Nations Support Mission for Libya). It was launched in 2011, after the fall of the regime of Colonel Gaddafi.

The plan has been prepared by NATO at the request of the United Nations and it is the first time, according to the sources consulted, that the UN has asked the Atlantic Alliance to prepare the evacuation of its personnel from a conflict zone in case it was necessary to take it to cape. Several allied countries have offered means for this plan, but the "framework nation", which provides the headquarters and the bulk of the force, is Spain during this period. Italy is expected to take over from next summer.

The sides involved in the Libyan civil war signed a ceasefire in October 2020 and the holding of presidential elections was agreed on December 24, but these were postponed, which has opened a new phase of uncertainty. The presence of armed militias and foreign troops - Russian mercenaries with Marshal Hafter and Turks with the Tripoli government - is another destabilizing factor in the country.

The United Nations already had to evacuate its employees in Libya in 2014, given the worsening violence, but then it took them by road to Tunisia. Now, the evacuation plan contemplates different scenarios, including the most dangerous: the need to enter force to remove the personnel through an amphibious landing operation. The logical thing is that this situation would not be reached and that it would be possible to carry out the evacuation by road, plane or boat.

In any case, the NATO plan foresees the use of military transport planes, fighter-bombers to control the airspace or frigates to monitor the nearby waters. Although the UN staff are not very numerous, it is taken for granted that in such a situation foreign residents would also have to be evacuated. The evacuation of Afghanistan last summer showed that in a country in conflict the situation can worsen very quickly and it may be necessary to send a force to guarantee the operation of basic infrastructures such as ports and airports.

Last June, before traveling to Tripoli, President Pedro Sánchez announced that Spain would participate in the UN mission in Libya.

Defense specified that five unarmed soldiers would be sent on an observation mission, which could be joined by members of the State Security Forces, but they have not yet joined.