UN envoy says Libya nearing ‘point of no return’

UN special envoy Bernadino Leon says time is running out for the country as battles rage between armed militias

UN special envoy Bernardino Leon (left) met Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni in Malta last week
UN special envoy Bernardino Leon (left) met Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni in Malta last week

Libya is nearing the "point of no return" as warring factions struggle to agree on a political future for the country, the United Nations special envoy Bernadino Leon warned.

"My opinion is that the country is running out of time. There is dangerous escalation and it is arriving at a point of no return,"  Leon said during a press conference on Tuesday following talks with stakeholders.

Asked if the UN or the international community should set a time frame or time limit for the ongoing talks between the contending forces in Libya sponsored by the UN, Leon said that he did not believe that it was the international community who had to set the time frame.

“Libyans must sort out their own framework”, not the international community,” he said.

“We are receiving thousands of messages from Libyans from all cities, from all sides and from all points of view telling us to continue the work. The message is very clear,” Leon insisted.

Bernardino, a Spanish diplomat who took up the post in August, has repeatedly called on both sides to agree to a ceasefire.

Despite the persistent fighting in the war-torn country and two rival governments jostling for control, oil production has recovered to 800,000 barrels per day from just 200,000 b/d earlier in the year.

Leon launched an initiative to bring together the warring sides for a dialogue and ceasefire last month, but fighting worsened in the past two weeks in Benghazi as well as in western Libya.

The death toll from two weeks of street fighting between pro-government forces and Islamist armed groups in the eastern city of Benghazi has risen to 170, medics said. Seven people were killed on Tuesday, and 15 on Monday.

The North African country has had two governments and parliaments since a militia group from the western city of Misrata seized the capital Tripoli in August, setting up its own cabinet and assembly.

The internationally recognised government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni had to move 1,000km to the east where the elected House of Representatives is also now working, effectively splitting the desert nation.

UN-brokered talks suffer from the absence of armed factions from Misrata or a rival militia from the western city of Zintan that battled Misrata forces in Tripoli for more than a month over the summer before being forced out of the capital. 

The situation in Tripoli has been worsened by a separate conflict between pro-government forces and Islamist brigades in Benghazi, the main city in the east.

Clashes could be heard in Benghazi's Benina suburb near the airport, an area the army had last week declared "liberated" from Ansar al-Sharia, blamed by Washington for a 2012 attack on the former US consulate that killed the American ambassador.

There was also fighting in western parts of the major Mediterranean port city where banks and many shops have been closed since army units loyal to former general Khalifa Haftar launched an anti-Islamist offensive and imposed a curfew.

Western powers worry that the country is heading towards civil war as authorities are too weak to control former rebels who helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but now defy state authority to grab power and a share of oil revenues.