UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres plans to appoint a former Senegalese minister to lead U.N. efforts to broker peace in Libya, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Thursday.
The 15-member U.N. Security Council needs to agree by consensus to the appointment of Abdoulaye Bathily as the U.N. special envoy for Libya. If there are no objections, then Bathily’s appointment will be approved on Friday evening.
Bathily would replace Jan Kubis, who stepped down in December. Guterres had informally proposed two other people to fill the role, but the Security Council could not agree.
Libya has had little peace since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted longtime autocrat Muammar Gaddafi, splitting the nation in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions and dragging in regional powers. Libyan oil output, a prize for the warring groups, has repeatedly been shut off.
Libya’s worst fighting for two years suddenly hit the capital, Tripoli, on Saturday. The clashes erupted and ended suddenly.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols;editing by Jonathan Oatis)
