UN, US welcome Presidential Council's call for cessation of hostilities in Libya
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIl) and the Embassy of the United States welcomed the Presidential Council's positive response to the international call for a halt to hostilities to further ensure the success of the efforts of the Libyan local authorities to stem the Covid-19, urging Marshal Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army to accept the invitation.
The Presidential Council of the government of national accord on Thursday expressed, in a press release, its availability to continue to observe the truce, welcoming the invitation to address Haftar who is allegedly pursuing "the crimes of bombing against civilians''.
He stressed his determination to respond to violations committed by the opposing camp.
In a series of tweets, UNSMIL said on Thursday that it "welcomes the positive response of the GNA (Government of the National Accord) to international calls for an immediate humanitarian pause in order to allow the various Libyan authorities to respond quickly to the threat posed by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Libya. "
Although no confirmed case of infection has been recorded in Libya, the Libyan authorities embodied by the government of national accord, which is recognized by the community, and the interim government based in Beidha (East) each took measures to curb the spread of the emerging coronavirus by closing schools and universities, suspending air flights and closing borders with foreign countries, as well as closing cafes and other public gathering places.
UNSMILurged "the Libyan National Army to do the same and call on all parties to end the fighting and join forces to protect the Libyans from the catastrophic consequences of this pandemic that spares no one".
The UN mission expressed its hope that "a humanitarian truce will encourage the approval by the two Libyan parties of the draft ceasefire agreement facilitated by the UN of February 23, as it was concluded in Geneva within the framework of the 5 + 5 intra-Libyan mixed military commission''.
Before the resignation on March 2 of the United Nations envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salamé, who oversaw the dialogue of the Libyan Military Committee in Geneva, a draft cease-fire agreement, was distributed to the two camps to consult their leaders before returning to finalize it.
The project of a permanent cease-fire on the whole country concerns, among other things, the withdrawal of combatants from residential areas and the return of displaced persons.
For its part, the American Embassy in Libya recalled that "the CP (Presidential Council) welcomed the international call for an immediate humanitarian cessation of hostilities launched by Algeria, Canada, the EU, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States to enable local authorities to respond to COVID-19".
"Now is the time for all parties to adopt a truce, both to fight the epidemic and to avoid a dangerous escalation in the fighting."
Fighting continued in Tripoli despite the truce proclaimed since January 12 with shelling which continues to target the neighborhoods and homes of civilians, killing on Thursday four people of the same family in Aïn Zara, South of Tripoli.
-0- PANA BY/IS/KND/VAO 20March2020
