Masked men in military uniform turned up at the gate of Libya’s Audit Bureau in Tripoli on Wednesday. They were not there to audit anything. They wanted to put one man in one chair.
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) was blunter about the aim. It said force and intimidation were used to try to install a disputed deputy head.
The mission called the move “a grave threat to the rule of law” and said appointments to sovereign bodies cannot be forced through.
The bureau has stopped work until further notice. In its own statement, it spoke of “the sanctity of state institutions” and the need for safe conditions.
So Libya’s Audit Bureau, the body charged with safeguarding public funds, has gone quiet. Staff left the building, according to The Geopolitical Desk, which also reported damage to offices and documents.
The timing is awkward. The same outlet says Turkey’s intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin, was in Tripoli a day earlier for talks with security officials. Diplomacy one day. Masked men the next.
Look past the gate of Libya’s Audit Bureau and this is a story about who gets to see the paperwork.
Libya’s Audit Bureau scrutinises how state money is spent. In a country split between rival eastern and western camps since 2014, that is a valuable window. Armed factions have long fought over revenues in the capital, Reuters notes, and have sometimes raided institutional buildings and abducted staff.
None of this is new. In 2018, UNSMIL warned that armed men were forcing their way into Tripoli institutions to gain privileged access to financial resources.
The struggle over the deputy chair is not new. In December 2024, tensions inside the bureau escalated over the appointment of a deputy chair, according to a UN Secretary-General report. Reports that month said armed groups had cordoned off its Dhara headquarters.
Later, chairman Khaled Shakshak accused one of his deputies, Attiyah Allah Al-Saieeti, of approving transactions worth $50 million while he was away. Shakshak told the annual meeting the institution was at a crossroads: “either we preserve the integrity of the Audit Bureau or protect individual interests.”
A court in south Tripoli then recognised him as the legitimate head.
Now a new name is in play at Libya’s Audit Bureau. The Geopolitical Desk identifies him as Anwar al-Hawsh, whose purported appointment is challenged by the House of Representatives and members of the High Council of State.
A House committee told Shakshak on Wednesday not to recognise appointments made without proper legal authority, the same report says.
The Geopolitical Desk goes further, citing sources who identify Mahmoud Hamza, commander of the 444th Brigade, as the driving force behind the attempt. They allege that the aim is to gain visibility into the movement of public money. We could not independently verify those claims, and Reuters reports that the people behind the attempt remain unidentified.
If it holds up, the contrast is sharp. Hamza’s brigade was long seen as one of western Libya’s more disciplined units, known for campaigns against smuggling. Now it stands accused of muscling into a watchdog.
For now, Libya’s Audit Bureau is shut and its leadership remains contested.
A watchdog can only protect public money if it is free to investigate those who control it. On Wednesday, that independence came under pressure.
