UN Envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame offered a new three-point plan to bring warring parties in the country back to the political process. His plan includes a humanitarian truce beginning on August 10, on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, the convention of a new international meeting and holding a comprehensive national conference.
The plan’s steps have been lately discussed with the conflict’s key parties, especially Head of the Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez al-Sarraj and Libyan National Army (LNA) Chief Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) briefed Monday the Security Council members in New York via closed-circuit television from Tripoli.
He said the armed conflict in the country shows no signs of abating, with the war waged in Tripoli’s outskirts have left nearly 1,100 people dead, including 106 civilians.
“Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes in the capital and neighboring districts as a result of the fighting, tens of thousands crossing the border to Tunisia seeking safety for their families,” he stressed.
“More than 100,000 men, women and children are immediately exposed to the frontlines, and over 400,000 more in areas directly impacted by clashes,” Salame explained, adding that the war has worsened humanitarian conditions and hindered access to food, health and other life-saving services.
He mentioned the attacks were carried out between GNA and LNA forces, including the airstrikes at a GNA and LNA airbases in Misrata and Jufra.
Salame also mentioned an increase in recruitment and use of foreign mercenaries, alongside the use of heavy weapons and ground attacks, stressing that forces on both sides have failed to observe their obligations under international humanitarian law.
“The most tragic example of indiscriminate attacks was the airstrike that hit a migrant detention center in Tajoura on July 2, killing 53 and injuring at least 87, including children.”
“What is even more appalling is that the precise coordinates of the Tajoura detention center and other such centers were shared by the UN with the parties following a previous incident in May.”
“To make matters worse following UN supported efforts to move the migrants to more secure locations,” he said, “authorities have in recent days deposited more than 200 migrants back into the bombed facility.”
In the course of the current fighting, serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by all parties have been committed, Salame noted, adding that residential areas have been hit by indiscriminate shelling and targeted airstrikes.
“I am particularly worried to see that health workers and facilities are repeatedly targeted, with 19 ambulances and four health facilities struck, many medical doctors and health workers killed including five on Sunday and others wounded.”
Impunity should not prevail especially for those who attack hospitals and ambulances, the UN envoy stressed, noting that protecting civilians and humanitarian workers requires sanctions against those committing crimes.
