Libya’s instability has ’quite rapidly’ deteriorated and will worsen if no elections, says U.N. envoy

U.N. official warns of deteriorating situation in Libya, urging renewed political talks to prevent further instability.

The top U.N. official in Libya warned Tuesday (August 20, 2024) that the political, military and security situation in the oil-rich north African country has deteriorated “quite rapidly” over the past two months, and without renewed political talks leading to a unified government and elections there will be greater instability.

Stephanie Khoury painted a grim picture to the U.N. Security Council of rival government forces unilaterally moving toward each other in July and August, sparking mobilisations and threats to respond, and unilateral attempts to unseat the Central Bank governor and the Prime Minister in the country’s west.

Libya plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. In the chaos that followed, the country split, with rival administrations in the east and west backed by rogue militias and foreign governments.

The country’s current political crisis stems from the failure to hold elections on Dec. 24, 2021, and the refusal of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah – who led a transitional government in the capital of Tripoli in the west – to step down. In response, Libya’s east-based parliament appointed a rival Prime Minister who was replaced, while the powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter continues to hold sway in the east.

Ms. Khoury warned the council that “Unilateral acts by Libyan political, military and security actors have increased tension, further entrenched institutional and political divisions, and complicated efforts for a negotiated political solution.”

On the economic front, she said, “attempts to change the Central Bank governor are fuelled by the perception of political and security leaders, and ordinary Libyans, that the bank “is facilitating spending in the east but not in the west.”

She also pointed to the unilateral decision by the Libyan National Army, which is under Hifter’s control, to close the Sharara oil field, the country’s biggest, “causing the Libya National Oil Corp. to declare force majeure on August 7.” Force majeure frees companies from contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances.