Under President Nicolas Sarkozy France launched a military intervention that plunged Libya into chaos. Now under President François Hollande Paris is conducting two parallel and very different policies; one official, one secret. In Tripoli France supports the government that is recognised by the international community. But at the same time it is also discreetly providing military aid to the official Libyan government's main adversary, General Khalifa Haftar, whose power base is in the east of the country. René Backmann and Lénaïg Bredoux investigate.
OneOne silence and two strategies. Nearly six years after Nicolas Sarkozy's military adventures in Libya, France under President François Hollande is conducting a policy towards the North African country that is often hard to decipher, shrouded in secrecy and shaped by a tug-of-war between the foreign and defence ministries.