Libya: UN orders deployment of ceasefire observers

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As they study your recommendation to amend the mandate of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (Manul), the members of the Security Council call on you to quickly establish and deploy a vanguard in Libya, indicates this letter which was the subject of negotiations for more than a week.

The Council specifies in its letter to expect within 45 days at most a report on the preparations carried out by this team of observers, as well as its practical proposals, to amend the mandate of Manul and to carry out an observation operation required to take gradually increasing in scale and expanding geographically.

In a report at the end of 2020, Antonio Guterres, without defining the number of his troops, had recommended the constitution of an unarmed observation group, made up of civilians and retired soldiers from African Union countries, from the European Union and the Arab League.

The deployment of observers is done in agreement with the Libyan parties.

In his report, the UN chief evokes "the foundations of an evolving mechanism for monitoring the United Nations ceasefire based in Sirte", which was the hometown of ex-dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Subsequently, the observation operation would be extended in the country.

The vanguard of observers should include up to thirty people, diplomats told AFP.