Libya conference seeks aid ahead of key Dec elections
Libya’s fragile unity government hosted an international conference on Thursday to drum up support as the warbattered country gears up for a landmark December election.
“Your presence is proof that we are on the road to peace,” said the head of the interim government, Abdelhamid Dbeibah, promising that the vote would be held “on time” and urging “respect for the results”.
Libya and the UN have been striving to turn the page on the violence that has wracked the country since a 2011 Nato-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Muamar Gaddafi.
A ceasefire between eastern and western factions last year led to the unity government taking office in March with a mandate to take the country to elections. “Tripoli has recovered. It is the capital of all Libyans,” Dbeibah said in his opening speech at the Conference in Support of the Stability of Libya, the
first of its kind to be held in the country for years.
The presidential vote is set to take place on December 24, but legislative polls have been delayed, with a date to be set in the new year, amid wrangling between factions in the country’s east and west.
“There is no stability without full national sovereignty,” said Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Al Mangoush. The UN Under-secretarygeneral
for Political Affairs, Rosemary Dicarlo, insisted on the importance of the December elections to “complete the transitional phase”. She called
on international organisations to send “special envoys to observe this operation” and to guarantee its transparency. As Libya faces multiple accusations of
mistreatment of irregular migrants, Dicarlo urged authorities to speed up the repatriation of refugees stranded there and to release migrants in detention. —
Your presence is proof that we are on the road to peace Abdelhamid Dbeibah Libyan Prime Minister