Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the Libyan military strongman seen as a potential winner of presidential elections in Libya this year, has reportedly been taken to hospital in Paris following a severe stroke.

Khalifa al-Obeidi, a spokesman for Haftar’s Libyan National Army, denied the claim as fake news generated by Haftar’s opponents, and his aides pointed to undated photographs of Haftar inspecting troops inside Libya.

But media organisations including Le Monde and France 24 reported claims suggested that Haftar, aged 74, had indeed suffered a stroke. Haftar was reportedly taken from Jordan to Paris earlier this month. Some separate medical sources confirmed that the self-appointed Field Marshal had been taken ill, but said he was improving and not in a critical condition.

Haftar’s departure from public life for an extended period, or questions about his capacity, would throw the already deeply chaotic Libyan politicical situation into further disarray. Haftar has been strongly supported by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

His Libyan National Army, largely based in the east of Libya, has been making steady military progress, but has been criticised for using brutal methods in a country overcome by civil war almost ever since the toppling of Colonel Gaddafi in 2011. He has been the leading opponent of the UN-backed Libyan government based in Tripoli, led by Fayez al-Sarraj.

Nevertheless, he has been received in both Paris and Rome as an important interlocutor for the west as it tries to bring the civil war to an end and to control the flow of migrants from the Libyan coast into Italy.

Haftar’s spokesman said the reports were being generated by those fearful that the Libyan National Army was making military progress, including its capture of the town of Derna.

The scale of the disruption in Libya was underlined by a UN report on Tuesday that said armed groups in Libya were holding thousands of people in prolonged arbitrary and unlawful detention, and subjecting them to torture and other human rights violations and abuses.

Quick Guide Why is Libya in chaos? Show What happened after the Libyan revolution? Muammar Gaddafi was ousted as president in 2011 after more than 40 years in power. But deep division between his supporters and adversaries persisted. An internationally recognised National Transitional Council took over, but quickly succumbed to schism, particularly between east and west. How did things get so chaotic? The transitional authorities found it impossible to extend their writ across the whole country, which was splintering into myriad factions: former regime loyalists, revolutionary brigades, local militia, Islamists, old army units, tribes, people trafficking gangs. What about elections? A General National Congress was elected in 2012 and established itself in Tripoli. But when a national parliament was elected in 2014, the GNC refused to accept the result; the new body had to install itself in the eastern city of Tobruk. Libya now effectively had two governments - the former buttressed by Islamist militias in its Tripoli stronghold, the latter supported by Khalifa Haftar, a renegade army colonel now head of the armed forces. What about the international community? Libya has become too unsafe for diplomats and most aid workers. The UN pulled its staff out in 2014 and foreign embassies followed suit. Tripoli international airport is largely destroyed by fighting. Where has this left Libya? The conflict has killed 5,000, ruined the economy, driven half a million from their homes and trapped hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking to get north to Europe in a nightmarish network of brutal camps. Diplomatic attempts at reconciliation have proven fruitless thus far.



“Men, women and children across Libya are arbitrarily detained or unlawfully deprived of their liberty based on their tribal or family links and perceived political affiliations,” the report by the UN Human Rights Office says. “Victims have little or no recourse to judicial remedy or reparations, while members of armed groups enjoy total impunity.”

The report says that since renewed hostilities broke out in 2014, armed groups on all sides have rounded up suspected opponents, critics, activists, medical professionals, journalists and politicians. Hostage-taking for prisoner exchanges or ransom is also common.

Around 6,500 people were estimated to be held in official prisons overseen by the judicial police of the Ministry of Justice in October 2017. There are no available statistics for facilities nominally under the Ministries of Interior and Defence, nor for those run directly by armed groups.

The report says armed groups routinely deny people any contact with the outside world when they are first detained. “Distraught families search for their detained family members, travel to known detention facilities, plead for the help of acquaintances with connections to armed groups, security or intelligence bodies, and exchange information with other families of detainees or missing persons,” it said.