Brazzaville summit on Libya, an opportunity for the AU to relaunch itself on the Libyan issue (Analysis by Youssef Ba, PANA correspondent)

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The 8th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) High Level Committee on Libya in Brazzaville, Congo, on Thursday, again provides an opportunity for the pan-African organization to become more involved in the political process in this North African country.

Africa, a victim of the desires of the major, regional and international actors involved in the Libyan issue to exclude it from the search for a solution to the crisis in Libya, is nevertheless suffering the full brunt of the negative security consequences of the situation in Libya.

The Brazzaville meeting will be attended by the heads of state and government of the African Union High Level Committee on Libya, neighbouring countries, representatives of the United Nations and the African Union, as well as representatives of the Sahel-Saharan Community, and several countries linked to the Libyan crisis and various Libyan parties.

The High Level Committee is headed by Congo with South Africa, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Tunisia as members.

This meeting, to be held before the 33rd African Union Summit, will reaffirm Africa's position, "which aspires to dialogue between the Libyan parties in the search for a solution to the conflict before any electoral process".

At the end of the meeting, the AU should have learned from the marginalization suffered in the Libyan issue by taking the necessary steps for a new impetus to impose a unified African vision of the settlement of the Libyan conflict.

Congolese Foreign Minister Jean-Claude Gakosso recently stressed during a tour in North Africa, the seriousness of the situation in Libya which calls for urgent action to achieve a unified position for African countries.

The stakes in Libya, a country rich in hydrocarbon resources, are multiple, resulting in interference by major world and regional powers motivated by the defence of their own interests, making it more complex to find a solution.

This desire to drive the African Union away dates back to the beginning of the crisis in 2011, with the 17 February revolution, which was achieved by a NATO-led military intervention without consultation or coordination with Africa.

Since then AU member countries have become more aware of the importance of Libya and the impact of its situation on other countries.

Thus, various mechanisms of consultation have been created by the African Union, in addition to the High Level Committee on Libya. There have been meetings of countries of Libya's neighbours, the Quartet, alongside the AU, the United Nations, the Arab League and the European Union, to discuss ways to find a political solution in that country.

It was at the 32nd African Union Ordinary Summit in Addis Ababa in 2019 that the continental organization demanded that the United Nations be involved in any settlement process on Libya and by adopting a roadmap on a timetable for an inclusive conference on Libya and the holding of general elections.

The deterioration of security following the 4 April military offensive on Tripoli by Marshal Khalifa Haftar countered the AU's strategy, which was forced to cancel the agendas of its roadmap.

This disappointment prompted Western countries to block the appointment of a joint UN-AU Special Envoy with opposition of France and the United States.

Thanks to the will of Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso, and his leadership of the AU High Level Committee on Libya, Africa was not excluded from the Berlin Conference with the invitation sent to Mr Sassou-Guesso and the Algerian President Abdelamjid Tabboune.

This meeting served as an opportunity for Algeria, a country bordering Libya, to take the initiative of mediation under the leadership of Mr. Tabboune.

For Abedessalmen al-Kouni, a political analyst specialist on Africa, "the important thing is not in the multiplication of initiatives, but in their effectiveness".

He believes that "these various mediations can create a certain cacophony and weaken the continent's position".

The African Union must give itself the means of its ambition by living up to the challenges facing the continent today.

This is according to analysts who suggest that the Brazzaville Summit develops an action plan to be adopted by the 33rd AU in next month in Addis Ababa, not by adopting a new roadmap, but by getting deeply involved in the process that is currently ongoing in Geneva on Libya following the Berlin Conference.

-0- PANA BY/JSG/BBA/MA 30Jan2020