UNITED NATIONS: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that Libya risks a return to widespread conflict, citing the volatile security situation in Tripoli and fighting in the eastern oil crescent and elsewhere.
The UN chief expressed alarm in a report to the UN Security Council at the renewed military escalation and ongoing political stalemate in the country.
Guterres said the Daesh extremist group no longer controls territory in Libya, but its operatives have been sighted, it has been blamed for a number of attacks in different areas, and the international community in the country remains a target.
He said in the report released Thursday that the potential for an escalating conflict remains due mainly to unaddressed political issues “and the multiplicity of armed actors on the ground with conflicting agendas.”
The overthrow of longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011 has spawned chaos in Libya. The power and security vacuum turned the country into a breeding ground for militias and militants, including Daesh extremists and Al-Qaeda affiliates. It has also made Libya a gateway for thousands of migrants from Africa and elsewhere seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Italy.
Since 2014, Libya has been split between rival governments and parliaments based in the western and eastern regions, each backed by different militias, tribes and political factions.
A UN-brokered deal in December 2015 to create a unity government has failed because the UN-backed government now in Tripoli has been unable to win the endorsement of Libya’s internationally recognized Parliament in eastern Tobruk, which is a prerequisite to assume power.
Guterres said the UN-backed Presidency Council and government remain “constrained in their ability to govern effectively and to provide much needed basic services and security to the population.”
He said the 2015 political agreement continues to be supported by the majority of Libyans and interested countries “as the only political framework to lead the country forward.”
An emerging consensus on the need for limited amendments to the agreement “represents an opportunity to overcome the current political stalemate and move the transition forward,” he said.
Guterres urged all parties in Libya to address the key issues blocking implementation of the agreement including the composition of various institutions, especially the executive authority and military command.
The secretary-general said he remains “deeply alarmed” by the human rights situation in the country where violations of international law continue to be perpetrated by all parties to the conflict.
“Armed groups from all sides continued to abduct, torture and kill civilians,” he said. “In addition, ordinary crime was endemic, mainly owing to the state of general lawlessness and the weakness of judicial institutions.”
Between Dec. 1 and Feb. 17, Guterres said the UN political mission in Libya documented 24 deaths and 24 injuries of civilians, mainly by gunfire, airstrikes, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices.
Migrants and refugees in Libya also “continue to suffer horrific abusers and risk death while transiting the country and across the Mediterranean Sea,” he said.
While forces allied to the UN-backed government routed Daesh from its stronghold in Sirte in December, Guterres said remnants are still active “in the hinterland” of the city.
They also maintain a presence in the desert and mountainous areas south of Bani Walid and areas further south and west, and there are reports of Daesh sleeper cells in western coastal areas and the greater Tripoli area, he said.
Guterres also expressed grave concern at the deterioration of the humanitarian situation.
He said 1.3 million people need humanitarian aid, the health care system “is on the brink of collapse” and the UN has received only $9 million of the $151 million it appealed for to help 900,000 people.
UN chief warns that Libya risks a return to wide conflict
UN chief warns that Libya risks a return to wide conflict
5 bodies of migrants washed ashore in east of Libya’s capital Tripoli, police officer says
TRIPOLI: At least five bodies of migrants including two women have been washed ashore in َQasr Al-Akhyar, a coastal town in the east of Libya’s capital Tripoli, a police officer told Reuters on Saturday.
Hassan Al-Ghawil, head of investigations at the Qasr Al-Akhyar police station, said that according to people in the area, a child’s body washed ashore and because of the waves’ height the body returned to the sea, and the coast guard was asked to search for it.
Ghawil said the bodies are all dark-skinned people. The bodies were found on Emhamid Al-Sharif shore in the western part of the town by people who reported to the police station.
Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe across the Mediterranean since the fall in 2011 of dictator Muammar Qaddafi to a NATO-backed uprising. Factional conflict has split the country into western and eastern factions since 2014.
Qasr Al-Akhyar is a coastal town some 73 kilometers (45 miles) east of Tripoli.
Pictures were posted on the Internet, and also seen by Reuters, showing the bodies of the migrants lying on the shore, where some were still within black inflatable lifebuoys.
“We reported to the Red Crescent to recover the bodies,” said Ghawil. “The bodies we found are still intact and we think there are more bodies to wash ashore.”
Earlier this month, fifty-three migrants, including two babies, were dead or missing after a rubber boat carrying 55 people capsized off the coast of Zuwara town in western Tripoli, the International Organization for Migration said.
Last week, a UN report said migrants in Libya, including young girls, are at risk of being killed, tortured, raped or put into domestic slavery, calling for a moratorium on the return of migrant boats to the country until human rights are ensured.
