LONDON: Libyans are losing what little hope they have that the dire political and humanitarian situation in their country will be resolved anytime soon, a senior adviser to the US mission at the UN has warned.
Jeffrey DeLaurentis told the UN Security Council that ordinary people are “losing hope that their country can be free of corruption and foreign influence,” following clashes between rival factions in the capital Tripoli last week that left 32 people dead.
The Libyan public, he added, doubt “that the armed forces can be unified, and that foreign fighters, forces and mercenaries will be withdrawn.
“They are deprived of basic public services while the powerful cut deals to divvy up hydrocarbon revenues in accordance with their own interests, particularly to militias controlled by various factions, robbing the Libyan people of their national wealth.”
The UN has made little progress in Libya since mediating a ceasefire and agreeing a framework for national elections in 2020, as it has failed to appoint a new special envoy to the country since November 2021.
The UN-backed elections scheduled for Dec. 24 last year, meanwhile, remain off the cards amid disagreements over the constitution and who is eligible to stand, with last week’s violence between supporters of rival prime ministers Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and Fathi Bashagha, who each control different swathes of the country, marking a new low.
Tarek Megerisi, an expert on Libya at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told the UNSC that the clashes were the first instance of heavy weaponry and artillery being used in Tripoli, controlled by Dbeibah’s Government of National Unity, during the current impasse.
Fighting broke out when militiamen loyal to Bashagha, who is supported by military strongman Khalifa Haftar, entered Tripoli to try to topple Dbeibah, but were repulsed by GNU forces. As well as the dead, at least 150 people were wounded.
“The outcome leaves Dbeibah stronger for now, but only underlines the need for a still absent political process,” Megerisi said.
Dbeibah was endorsed in February 2021 as prime minister by the UN, and has said he will not leave power until elections are held.
Bashagha, meanwhile, was recognized in February this year as Libya’s prime minister by the country’s House of Representatives based in Tobruk. Each has accused the other of aggression and corruption.
Karim Mezran, from the Atlantic Council, told The Guardian newspaper that Libya’s warring militias are “criminal organizations totally dedicated to power and money, and the grabbing of resources at any price.
“It is a mistake to think of these as political ideological organisations, but instead mafia organisations that have a vested interest in preventing the development of a functioning state.”
