The Libyan government on Saturday welcomed a recent decision by the UN Security Council to deploy international teams to monitor the implementation of a ceasefire agreement signed in October last year in the conflict-torn country.
The Interim Government of National Unity (GNU) called on the Council to help get mercenaries out of the oil-rich country, as it approaches the December elections after a decade of fighting and upheaval.
The UN Security Council unanimously approved Secretary-General Antonio Guterre’s recent proposal that up to 60 monitors join an existing political mission in Libya.
The monitors would arrive in an “incremental deployment … when conditions allow”, according to the Council’s British draft. The Council also calls on all foreign forces and mercenaries to leave the country, as would happen months ago.
The vote, which was announced on Friday, was conducted via email due to the coronavirus pandemic. the results were announced at a short virtual meeting.
The interim government, which took power last month, expressed its willingness to facilitate the work of UN monitors.
It also said it would provide “all economic and logistical” capacity to the country’s electoral authority to hold a “fair and transparent” vote on December 24.
Libya’s Supreme Councilor also welcomed UN Security Council Resolution 2570 on Saturday, which calls for Libya’s presidential and parliamentary elections to be scheduled in time for December 24 this year.
The UN Security Council unanimously called on the Libyan interim government to carry out the necessary preparatory work to hold free presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 December, which was endorsed by Libya’s Political Dialogue Forum.
The Prime Minister also called on the House of Representatives (Parliament) to “undertake to work together to exercise the necessary legal rights to keep the electoral process timely.”
The statement called on all UN countries to support the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, including the withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya, and to support the 5 + 5 work of the Joint Military Commission.
Libya has been plagued by corruption and unrest since a NATO-backed uprising overthrew and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. based in the east of the country.
Each side was supported by armed groups and foreign governments. The UN estimated in December that there were at least 20,000 foreign warriors and mercenaries in Libya, including Syrians, Russians, Sudanese and Chadians.
In April 2019, the East-based military commander Haftar and his forces, with the support of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), launched an offensive to try to capture Tripoli. His 14-month campaign collapsed after Turkey and Qatar intensified their military support for the UN-backed government.
The ceasefire agreement, reached in October, called on foreign fighters and mercenaries to leave within three months. No progress was made in this regard.
The ceasefire agreement has dramatically reduced civilian casualties, but the UN has continued to document killings, forced disappearances, sexual violence, arbitrary arrests, hate crimes and attacks on activists and human rights defenders in Libya, UN Special Envoy Jan Kubis told the Council last month.
