UN: Armed groups fuel Libya instability

Accuses them of targeted persecutions and serious human rights violations

UN experts say “predatory behaviour” by armed groups in Libya is posing a direct threat to forming a national government and ending lawlessness that has fuelled militancy, human trafficking and instability in the wider region.

The experts also warned in the summary of a report to the UN Security Council obtained Friday by AP that “the use of violence to exert control over Libya’s state institutions might result in a return of armed confrontations in Tripoli,” the country’s capital.

They said the Libyan Investment Authority, National Oil Corporation and Central Bank of Libya “were targets of threats and attacks, impacting on the performance of Libya’s oil and financial sectors.”

In May, Fayez Sarraj, prime minister of the UN-backed government in Tripoli, and Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, commander of the self-styled Libyan National Army in the east, agreed on a road map aimed at restoring order in the country. It calls for parliamentary and presidential elections, scheduled for December 10. But the panel of experts said “predatory behaviour of armed groups posed a direct threat to Libya’s political transition.”

“Armed groups are responsible for targeted persecutions and serious human rights violations, which are deepening grievances among some categories of the population and ultimately threatening longterm peace and stability in Libya,” the experts said.

Human trafficking and migrant smuggling “are substantially benefiting armed groups,” they said, fuelling instability and undermining the country’s economy.

Most armed groups involved are affiliated either with the Sarraj government or Haftar’s Libyan National Army.