Libya summit outcome offers reasons for hope

Easy availability of guns, sprouting up of militias has meant the writ of the state has been tenuous at best

Following the meeting in Paris between rival Libyan factions on Tuesday, there is reason to be cautiously optimistic about the political and security prospects for the troubled north African nation. Libya has been in a state of violent flux since the toppling of long-time strongman Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The Libyan people have not been given the chance to enjoy the fruits of their uprising. The violent instability it wrought has seen extremists, including those from Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), establish a foothold in Libya for the first time. The easy availability of guns and sprouting up of numerous militias has meant that the writ of the state has been tenuous at best. In fact, the country is split right down the middle, with two rival governments — and the different armed groups that underwrite their authority — vying to represent the Libyan people.

Now, backed by the international community, four powerful players in Libya, including UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Al Sarraj and military leader Khalifa Haftar, have agreed to work towards holding parliamentary and presidential elections by December 10. The rules for the election will be finalised by September 16, and the leaders will work on streamlining their parallel government structures and merge the various militias under their command to form what will amount to a national Libyan army.

With the massive hydrocarbon resources at their disposal, and with a relatively small and homogenous population, Libyans should have been able to enjoy a high standard of living and stability. Instead, they have had to contend with anarchy, death, and destruction as a result of the extremist groups, and criminal trafficking networks, that have taken advantage of the weak government and imposed the rule of the gun.

While we must welcome the results of the Paris meeting, we must also be alive to the scale of the task that lies ahead. Reining in the armed groups and stabilising the country will not be easy.

There is too much distrust between the different actors — primarily the rival administrations based in Tripoli and Tobruk — for things to go smoothly. On a practical level, there are issues yet to be sorted out — for instance, the fact that the Libyan constitution does not include the post of president, and that a new constitution has not yet been put to a referendum.

The onus is on the politicians and the warlords to realise that Libyans have suffered enough — first under Gaddafi’s rule, and then under militia lawlessness — and work towards a transition that offers them closure for the past, and promises a better future.