Walid Ellafi

Walid Ammar Muhammad Ammar Ellafi (born 9 July 1985) is a Libyan producer, director and politician who has served as the minister of state for communication and political affairs in the Government of National Unity (GNU) since 2021. He also served as the acting minister of foreign affairs in the GNU from September to November 2023. Ellafi was born in Tripoli and studied at the University of Tripoli and the Higher Institute of Computer Technology. He started his career as a developer at Microsoft, before founding and directing the media company Artec in 2008 and the IMG broadcasting group in 2013. He was the director of several media channels from 2014 to 2021, and has also produced and directed several Arabic television programmes and films since 2014. An Islamist, Ellafi is known for his close relationship with Islamist militant leader Abdel Hakim Belhaj. He has aligned himself with the Muslim Brotherhood since the collapse of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011, but is registered as a political independent. In 2013, he became the head and director of Al-Naba TV, which he used to promote and support armed Islamic terrorist groups against the Libyan National Army and its commander Khalifa Haftar during the Second Libyan Civil War. After the end of the civil war, he was appointed to the GNU by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh. As minister of state for communication and political affairs, he has organised government initiatives to implement Sharia law and promote what he sees as Islamic values across Libya.