TUNIS: Libyans at UN-led talks were to discuss the powers of a proposed transitional government Thursday, the UN said, as it steps up efforts to end years of conflict in the country.
The meetings in neighboring Tunisia have produced a preliminary roadmap for “organizing free, fair, inclusive and credible presidential and parliamentary elections,” interim UN envoy Stephanie Williams told journalists on Wednesday evening.
The talks, between 75 delegates selected by the UN to represent existing institutions and the diversity of Libyan society, take place in parallel with talks between former rival military delegations inside the country to fill in the details of a key October cease-fire deal.
Oil-rich Libya has been gripped by chaos since the 2011 ouster and killing of longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi, with rival administrations in the east and west vying for power.
The latest push for peace comes months after forces backing the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) staged a withering June pushback against the forces of military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is allied with a rival administration in the east and had attempted to seize Tripoli.
The Tunisia talks, which build on the relative calm on the ground, aim at creating a roadmap toward elections and appointing a temporary government to oversee the transitional period.
The administration will be charged with providing vital services to a country torn apart by war, economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.
The UN is also convening meetings of a joint military commission with five representatives from each side near the cease-fire line in Sirte, the coastal hometown of Qaddafi.
Williams said talks would continue there on Thursday, with a subcommittee on the withdrawal of foreign forces.
An array of foreign powers have backed Libya’s warring parties, notably Russia and the United Arab Emirates on Haftar’s side and Turkey on the side of the GNA.
The GNA on Tuesday accused the Wagner group, a Russian paramilitary organization accused of backing Haftar, of preventing its delegation from landing at the Qardabiya air base south of the city.
The Qardabiya air base is vast military installation occupying a strategically vital position on the central Mediterranean coast.
Libyans to debate powers of transitional government
https://arab.news/gb9t4
Libyans to debate powers of transitional government
- The talks were between 75 delegates selected by the UN to represent existing institutions and the diversity of Libyan society
- Oil-rich Libya has been gripped by chaos since the 2011 ouster and killing of longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi
Gaza families struggle to recover from days of torrential rains that killed 12 people
- The downpour, which dumped more than 150 milliliters (9 inches) of rain on some parts of Gaza over the past week, turned dirt lanes to mud and flooded tents in camps for displaced people
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Palestinians in Gaza struggled to recover Tuesday from torrential rains that battered the enclave for days, flooding camps for the displaced, collapsing buildings already badly damaged in the two-year war and leaving at least 12 dead, including a two-week-old baby.
The downpour, which dumped more than 150 milliliters (9 inches) of rain on some parts of Gaza over the past week, turned dirt lanes to mud and flooded tents in camps for displaced people.
The Gaza Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, said Tuesday the two-week-old died of hypothermia as a result of the weather. The baby was brought to the hospital a few days ago and was transferred to intensive care but died on Monday.
In Gaza City, a man died Tuesday after a home already damaged during Israeli strikes, collapsed because of the heavy rainfall, according to Shifa Hospital.
Members of the Al-Hosari family said 30 people lived in the building, but just nine were home when it collapsed. The man who was killed was a worker who had come to fix the walls, they said. Five people were injured.
The Health Ministry said the remaining 10 people were killed last week, also from buildings collapsing from the rain and heavy winds.
Emergency workers warned people not to congregate in damaged buildings due to concerns of collapse, though so much of the territory has been reduced to rubble, there are few places to escape the rain. In July, the United Nations Satellite Center estimated that almost 80 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged.
“When we hear the news that there is a storm, our whole lives change, we start thinking about where to stay, to go, where to put our mattresses and blankets, and where to keep our children safe and warm,” said Mohammed Gharableh, a father displaced from the southern city of Rafah.
“During every storm like this, water penetrates our tents, and our mattresses and blankets get soaked,” he added.
In Israel, areas near Gaza received between 60 mm to 160 mm (2 to 6 inches) of rain in the past week, according to the Israel Meteorological Service, which in some cases is more than twice the average amount of rain for this time of year.
Aid groups say despite two months of a ceasefire, not enough shelter material has been getting into Gaza to help Palestinians deal with the winter. Recently released Israeli military figures suggest it hasn’t met the ceasefire stipulation of allowing 600 trucks of aid into Gaza a day, though Israel disputes that finding.
The vast majority of Gaza’s 2 million people have been displaced, and most people live in vast tent camps stretching along the coast, or set up among the shells of damaged buildings. The buildings lack adequate flooding infrastructure and people use cesspits dug near tents as toilets.
The Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, called COGAT, said close to 270,000 tents and tarps have entered Gaza over the past few months as well as winter items, shelter equipment, and sanitation supplies.
But some aid groups disputed the figures and said more supplies, especially winter items, are desperately needed.
Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council, last week said it has tracked just 68,000 tents that have entered Gaza via the UN, non-governmental organizations, and various countries. Many of the tents aren’t properly insulated for winter, it says.
