عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

UN Warns it Will Impose Sanctions on Those Obstructing Libyan Elections

The UN Security Council session held on Libya on November 24, 2021. (UNSMIL)
The UN Security Council session held on Libya on November 24, 2021. (UNSMIL)
TT
20
TT

UN Warns it Will Impose Sanctions on Those Obstructing Libyan Elections

The UN Security Council session held on Libya on November 24, 2021. (UNSMIL)
The UN Security Council session held on Libya on November 24, 2021. (UNSMIL)

The Security Council on Wednesday warned that it would issue sanctions against those who obstruct Libya’s presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for December 24, renewing calls for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the country without delay.

The 15-nation council issued a presidential statement following the briefing of Jan Kubis, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), who has recently tendered his resignation.

“The Security Council recalls that individuals or entities who threaten the peace, stability or security of Libya or obstruct or undermine the successful completion of its political transition, including by obstructing or undermining the elections, may be designated for its sanctions,” it said.

The Council also welcomed the Libya Stabilization Conference that convened on October 21 in Tripoli and expressed its support the elections as set out in the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) roadmap agreed in Tunis in November 2020 and Resolution 2570.

It voiced strong support for the important role played by the High National Elections Commission (HNEC).

“The Security Council stresses the importance of a peaceful transfer of power in Libya following the elections,” the presidential statement said.

The UN body recalled that free, fair and credible elections will allow the Libyan people to elect representative and unified institutions from among all Libyan political actors.

It also emphasized the importance of the implementation of the October 23, 2020 ceasefire agreement including through the withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya without delay.

In its presidential statement, the Security Council also welcomed the Action Plan agreed by the 5+5 Joint Military Commission in Geneva on October 8 and called on all relevant actors to facilitate its synchronized, phased, gradual and balanced implementation.

It underscored the importance of arrangements to “ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and the inclusion of youth.”

Most Viewed

 
Arab World

UN: More than 1.3 Million Return to Homes in Sudan

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20
TT

UN: More than 1.3 Million Return to Homes in Sudan

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)

More than 1.3 million people who fled the fighting in Sudan have headed home, the United Nations said Friday, pleading for greater international aid to help returnees rebuild shattered lives.

Over a million internally displaced people (IDPs) have returned to their homes in recent months, UN agencies said.

A further 320,000 refugees have crossed back into Sudan this year, mainly from neighboring Egypt and South Sudan.

While fighting has subsided in the "pockets of relative safety" that people are beginning to return to, the situation remains highly precarious, the UN said.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The fighting has killed tens of thousands.

The RSF lost control of the capital, Khartoum, in March and the regular army now controls Sudan's center, north and east.

In a joint statement, the UN's IOM migration agency, UNHCR refugee agency and UNDP development agency called for an urgent increase in financial support to pay for the recovery as people begin to return, with humanitarian operations "massively underfunded".

Sudan has 10 million IDPs, including 7.7 million forced from their homes by the current conflict, they said.

More than four million have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

- 'Living nightmare' -

Sudan is "the largest humanitarian catastrophe facing our world and also the least remembered", the IOM's regional director Othman Belbeisi, speaking from Port Sudan, told a media briefing in Geneva.

He said 71 percent of returns had been to Al-Jazira state, with eight percent to Khartoum.

Other returnees were mostly heading for Sennar state.

Both Al-Jazira and Sennar are located southeast of the capital.

"We expect 2.1 million to return to Khartoum by the end of this year but this will depend on many factors, especially the security situation and the ability to restore services," Belbeisi said.

With the RSF holding nearly all of the western Darfur region, Kordofan in the south has become the war's main battleground in recent weeks.

He said the "vicious, horrifying civil war continues to take lives with impunity", imploring the warring factions to put down their guns.

"The war has unleashed hell for millions and millions of ordinary people," he said.

"Sudan is a living nightmare. The violence needs to stop."

- 'Massive' UXO contamination -

After visiting Khartoum and the Egyptian border, Mamadou Dian Balde, the UNHCR's regional refugee coordinator for the Sudan crisis, said people were coming back to destroyed public infrastructure, making rebuilding their lives extremely challenging.

Those returning from Egypt were typically coming back "empty handed", he said, speaking from Nairobi.

Luca Renda, UNDP's resident representative in Sudan, warned of further cholera outbreaks in Khartoum if broken services were not restored.

"What we need is for the international community to support us," he said.

Renda said around 1,700 wells needed rehabilitating, while at least six Khartoum hospitals and at least 35 schools needed urgent repairs.

He also sounded the alarm on the "massive" amount of unexploded ordnance littering the city and the need for decontamination.

He said anti-personnel mines had also been found in at least five locations in Khartoum.

"It will take years to fully decontaminate the city," he said, speaking from Port Sudan.