Dear Friend,

Today, we’ve released two new pieces that reveal damning details about the state of fuel smuggling in Libya.

Our newest investigation reveals that Libya’s leaders helped orchestrate a massive expansion of gasoline and diesel smuggling between 2022 and 2024, costing the country almost $20 billion. In 2024 alone, nearly $7 billion—roughly 15% of Libya’s total public spending—was stolen through a system deliberately exploited by those responsible for protecting the nation’s resources.

The investigative report, “Inside Job: Libya’s Fuel Smuggling Escalation,” exposes how the Haftar family in eastern Libya and powerful individuals linked to the Dabaiba family in the west of Libya have systematically exploited the nation’s bloated fuel subsidy program to siphon off more than half of all fuel procurements.

This entrenched system of predatory graft is intensely damaging to the Libyan state. A new essay released today in Foreign Policy, authored by our executive director Justyna Gudzowska, amplifies the evidence in our report, calls out the implications for international energy companies, and offers actionable opportunities for pressure.

Every year, billions of dollars in stolen fuel fund Haftar’s dictatorship in the east, bankroll armed groups in the west, supply Russian military units in Africa, and enable Hemedti’s Rapid Support Forces in Sudan amid the ongoing civil war.

Those billions of dollars in public wealth should fund hospitals, schools, and other essential infrastructure, but that money is lining private pockets instead. In a twist of bitter irony, citizens of one of the world’s richest oil nations are forced to wait in long lines at petrol stations and pay exorbitant black market prices for fuel.

The networks profiting from this industrial-scale racket must be held to account. With “Inside Job,” we continue our commitment to provide the evidence, expert analysis, and recommendations necessary to hold those profiting accountable.

Sincerely,

Laura Ferris

Director of Programs