AU concern as more weapons flood Libya
HAVING expressed deep concern over the security situation, the AU high-level committee on Libya has condemned the additional flow of arms into the country.
The committee has wrapped up its fifth meeting at the AU headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, it said yesterday. Having noted that Libya has more than 20 million pieces of weapons and hardly needs more, the participants of the meeting have urged all regional and international actors to stop arms supply in line with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
They have also called on international stakeholders to positively engage all concerned so as to support a political resolution in the country.
They have underscored the imperative that the assets of Libya remain frozen with a professional management in order to prevent their depreciation and eventual loss and guarantee the right of the Sate of Libya to this effect.
Libya has been embroiled in a civil war after the fall and death of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The meeting has expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in Sabha, in southern Libya. The participants of the meeting have reaffirmed full support for the unity of Libya and condemned any act that can lead to divisions based on ethnicity or tribal affiliations.
The participants noted with deep concern the proliferation of armed groups and criminal activities in the South of Libya.
They expressed the need for a tailored engagement strategy, including through convening of a meeting with key stakeholders in that region.
A tripartite task force of the AU, the EU , and the UN has been endeavouring to support stranded African migrants in Libya, while consolidating efforts to dismantle organised networks of human traffickers and migrant smugglers.
In his opening remarks of the meeting on Tuesday, Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the AU Commission, told the meeting that the situation in Libya is “morally intolerable”. The participants of the meeting have reaffirmed their total rejection of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and strongly condemned terrorist and external rebel groups operating in Libya, and their criminal activities.
They have reiterated their conviction that there can be no military solution to the conflict in Libya, and once again, stressed to Libyan stakeholders the imperative of engaging in an inclusive AU-UN proposed national reconciliation conference so that Libyans will be the owners of their own political process and destiny.
Expressing support for the UN-led political dialogue, the meeting has stressed the need to create conducive political and security conditions for the conduct of the envisaged elections in Libya, including promotion of national reconciliation and dialogue. It has called for the convening of a national reconciliation conference, under the auspices of the AU and UN. – Xinhua