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Ghassan Salame, dean of The Paris School of International Affairs, attends a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 24, 2014. Credits: Reuters/Ruben Sprich/Files

United Nations: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was set to name a former Lebanese culture minister as new UN envoy to Libya, ending an unusually contentious four-month search that followed US rejection of his first suggestion.

Guterres on Friday officially put forward Ghassan Salame, a professor of International Relations and Conflict Resolution at Sciences-Po in Paris, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Saturday. Diplomats said objections were unlikely and the UN Security Council will green light the appointment on Tuesday.

The council must agree by consensus on the appointment of special envoys. Traditionally, the UN chief informally discusses candidates with the 15-member body to ensure agreement before officially proposing a name.

The search for a successor to Martin Kobler, a German diplomat who has served as the UN representative in Libya since November 2015, began in February when Guterres proposed former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad for the job.

The US rejected Fayyad because of his nationality. US Ambassador Nikki Haley said the UN had been unfairly biased in favour of the Palestinian Authority to the detriment of our allies in Israel.

In practice if [countries] have a significant objection then they usually make it clear before the secretary-general has made the proposal, said a senior council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. So it was very unusual that the United States blocked the Palestinian candidate very late in the day.

Guterres described the US rejection as a loss for the Libyan peace process and for the Libyan people.

Following that objection, Russia and other council members then rejected a British candidate and an American candidate, said diplomats. Koblers posting was briefly extended until the end of June.

Over 20 people were approached and either ruled themselves out i.e. they werent available or they were ruled out by one of the Security Council members, the senior council diplomat said.

Libya slid into turmoil after Muammar Gaddafis overthrow in 2011, with rival governments and armed alliances competing for power. A UN-backed government in Tripoli has struggled to impose its authority and has been rejected by factions in the east. The UN envoy to Libya has been trying to broker peace.

The political chaos and security vacuum has allowed Islamist militant groups to gain a foothold and human traffickers to thrive. Libya is the most common departure point for migrants trying to reach Europe by sea.

(Reuters)

Read more from the original source:
UN Chief Antonio Guterres Set to Name New Libya Envoy - The Wire

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Assaray Trade and Investment Bank, Noman Al-Bouri, and the banks manager, Farouq Al-Obaidi, were abducted in Tripoli on Saturday.Sources said Al-Bouri and Al-Obaidi were abducted by gunmen after attending a celebration at Corinthia Hotel last night. Their whereabouts is still unknown.The banks employees went on strike on Sunday, demanding the immediate release of the two officials.

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The director of the General Electricity Company (GECOL), Abdul-Majeed Hamza, said Libya is about to demand 200 megawatts of electricity supply from Tunisia and Egypt to meet the increase of electric grid loads. Hamza disclosed during a press conference on Wednesday losses estimated at $ 15 billion between debt, looting and vandalism.

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Sources in the city of Surman said two people were killed in an armed dispute between two families which grew rapidly as both sides received reinforcements. The source explained that the reasons for the dispute was a shipment of fuel which resulted in the two parties using light and medium weapons against each other, which resulted in the burning of houses, property and cars belonging to one of the families, which in turn had to leave the area.

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A number of residents of the city of Zuwara demonstrated peacefully to demand the cessation of fuel smuggling operations that is damaging the economy of the country. The demonstrators also demanded the prevention of fuel trucks entering the city except for those carrying official papers, on their way to official stations and accompanied all the way to its destination.

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A representative of the Sudanese community in the city of Misrata, Moataz Abbas, said that eight Sudanese children will be repatriated after they became stuck in Libya following the death of their parents who joined ISIS in the city of Sirte in 2015. Abbas said that the children were transferred from Sirte to a reform center in Misrata. The plane taking them home to Sudan will leave from Tripoli.

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Social media sources have confirmed the kidnapping of the renowned activist Khalid Tabib. Tabib is a vocal supporter of the General National Congressand the Government of National Salvation, and sources have indicated that Tabib was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen, last Tuesday in the area of Zawiat Dahmani in Tripoli city center. No one has claimed responsibility for the disappearance of Tabib or declared where he is being held as of yet.

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The head of the National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sannallah, expects Libya's oil production to rise to 1 million bpd by the end of next July after the resumption of oil production in a number of fields nationwide if production continues at its current pace without interruption. Sanallahs expectations come after the declaration of the Bayda oil fields return to operating after it was out of order for three years as a result of repeated acts of sabotage.

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The municipal council of Sirte in cooperation with the Scout Regiment, started distributing food baskets to needy families in a number of different residential neighborhoods in the city. The initiative distributed approximately three thousand food baskets which contained foodstuffs, baby milk and other various items to the neediest families in the city.

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Gharyan city council announced on its official Facebook page on Saturday that the director of the Gharayan Satellite Control Center which belongs to the Rascomstar Company, Abdul Raouf Hamza, said that the Libyan satellite Qaf 1 is still in the spacecraft specified for it and that it has been under the control of those responsible for its operation since its launch, denying that any country was responsible for hijacking the satellite. Hamza added that an Italian company was contracted to be a backup station in the event of any emergency and this decision is a result of random conflicts that break out in the western region but either way the satellite remains under direct supervision of Libyans.

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The spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of the UN proposed government, Mohammed Al-Ghassri, confirmed the announcement made by an operation room of the Bunyan Al-Marsoos operation to mobilize its forces in the city of Sirte and its environs. This decision comes in order to secure the city and increase the alertness of their forces for fear of any security breach during the days of Eid Al-Fitr. Al-Ghassri indicated that the forces are still at war and are prepared for any emergency required while he denied news of a deteriorated security situation in Sirte which was circulated on various social networking sites.

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News Roundup - Sun, Jun 18, 2017 - The Libya Observer

Libya's coast guard has intercepted 906 migrants off the western city of Sabratha.

The migrants were on board several wooden and rubber boats, coast guard spokesman Ayoub Qassem says.

One of the rubber boats was perforated and nearly submerged, and a wooden boat had its engine missing.

The migrants were African, Asian and Arab, and included 98 women and 25 children, Qassem says.

Libya has been in turmoil for years and is the most common departure point for migrants trying to reach Europe by sea.

More than 60,000 migrants have crossed the central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy this year.

RAW 2017

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Original post:
Libya intercepts more than 900 migrants - 9news.com.au

Some of the captives said they had had their teeth pulled out and their arms broken. Photograph: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

The United Nations migration agency expressed deep concern for around 260 Somali and Ethiopian migrants allegedly held and mistreated by criminal gangs in Libya, saying it believed that a harrowing video of them posted on social media was authentic.

The International Organization for Migration said a video posted on Facebook earlier this month showed abused Somalis and Ethiopians huddled fearfully in a concrete room.

The IOM said a Somali journalist based in Turkey recorded the video call from a gang in which some migrants claimed to have been beaten. Some alleged having their teeth pulled out and arms broken. The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.

The agency said some captives relatives had received videos asking them to pay $8,000 to $10,000 or their child or relative will be killed. The captives exact location was not known, but the IOM said the relevant authorities had been informed.

The IOM has long decried risks taken by human traffickers with the migrants and refugees they ferry through relatively lawless Libya and into the Mediterranean sea by boat en route to Italy. Libya has been without a stable, central government since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, and has been a major departure point for tens of thousands of people, mostly from the Horn of Africa, who seek to cross the Mediterranean to reach relative peace and stability in Europe.

In the video, posted on Facebook, a man calling himself Abdinajib Mohamed speaks to the camera: I am here for a year now. I am in trouble. I am starved. Anyone who has gone through such ordeal would have hated life altogether. Look at my body they beat me every day with batons. They dont want to release me.

Another young man who called himself Nur Ali Awale said he had been held for 15 months. They beat me with iron bars, he said. I travelled from Ethiopia. They ordered me to pay $8,300, and my family cannot afford to pay that amount.

A veiled woman who said she had travelled from Bossaso city in northern Somalia with her two children said she had been beaten daily.

Originally posted here:
UN 'deeply concerned' at migrants allegedly held for ransom in Libya - The Guardian

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Popular protests against the authoritarian rule of Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi in Libya in February 2011 resulted in violent armed conflict between Gaddafis forces and rebel fighters. In March 2011, NATO implemented a no-fly zone to enforce UN Resolution 1973, which condemned the systematic violation of human rights by the Libyan authorities under Gaddafi and authorized member states to take all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian populated areas. By October the same year, Libyas interim authorities declared the countrys official liberation from Gaddafis rule. General elections took place in July 2012, and Libya experienced a period of relative stability and growth.However, throughout 2013 and 2014, tensions grew between different political and militia factions. This resulted in the emergence of two distinct blocs. One bloc, comprised mainly of Islamist factions, sought the removal of Gaddafi-era officials from positions of power. The other blocopposed Islamist groups and believed former regime figures could continue to play a role in Libya. A second general election took place in June 2014; however, the Islamist political factions fared poorly. In response to the political defeat, Islamist-aligned militias took control of Tripoli by force, reinstated the previous government, and declared the 2014 elections unconstitutional. The newly-elected parliament fled to eastern Libya where they continued to meet. The result was two separate sets of governing institutions one in eastern Libya and the Islamistbacked government in Tripoli covering different parts of the country and with competing claims to legitimacy.

This fragmentation of Libyas social and political fabric led to instability, violence and confusion, particularly in the capital of Tripoli. As conflict escalated in 2014, many foreign embassies and international organisationsrelocated across the borderto Tunisia. International support also shiftedfrom high-level, governance-related programming to peace building assistance and humanitarian aid. Throughout 2015, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) attempted to bring rival factions together to agree on a unity government. On 17 December 2015, partly as a result of UNSMILs efforts, Libyan representatives signed the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) in Morocco, creating the Government of National Accord (GNA) that took power in Tripoli in March 2016.

However, conflict has continued to flare up across the country while daily living standards have dropped due to instability, damaged infrastructure and economic decline. The GNA has faced major difficulties in exerting control outside of Tripoli, while institutional reunification and political reconciliation efforts have been slow to gain traction. To date, Libya remains a deeply divided country where militias wield more power than politicians, and smugglers, people traffickers and jihadist groups are able to exploit the population.

Excerpt from:
Non-Military Perspectives on Recent Developments in Libya - ReliefWeb