UNITED NATIONS, United States: The UN’s special envoy for Libya, a Senegalese diplomat, Tuesday said he had tendered his resignation, saying the world body could not successfully support the North African country’s political transition.
He said that the country’s leaders put their own interests above finding a solution to the issue.
“I tendered my resignation to the Secretary General,” Abdoulaye Bathily told media after a Security Council meeting where he painted a dismal picture of the situation in the country, riven by conflict and civil war for over a decade.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has accepted Bathily’s resignation, said the UN chief’s office.
Bathily blamed a “lack of political will and good faith” by Libyan leaders for his failing in improving the situation. He said the UN support mission in Libya (UNSMIL) made a lot of efforts under his leadership over the last 18 months but the situation has deteriorated.
He called the situation “sad” as “the bulk of the Libyan population want to get out of this mess.”
“Under the circumstances, there is no way the UN can operate successfully,” he said. “There is no room for a solution in the future.”
After longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011, Libya is still struggling to recover from years of war and chaos. Although relative peace has returned to this oil-rich country in the past four years, conflicts between numerous armed groups continue to occur.
The country is divided between a UN-recognized government based in Tripoli and a rival regime in the east.
Bathily was appointed to the role in September 2022 following the sudden resignation of his predecessor, Jan Kubis, in November of the previous year.
