Conflict among militias based in Western Libya persists

CAIRO – 20 December 2020: The conflict among militias based in Western Libya and controlling various national institutions persists resulting in the sabotage of infrastructure and utilities.

The United Nations condemned on Friday the threats made by certain militias against the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC), as reported by Sky News Arabia. The international organization stressed that such threats compose a violation of the UN Security Council resolutions, and that individuals standing behind them may be subject to penalties.

It is noteworthy to mention that there is a disagreement between the NOC and Libya's Central Bank as the former refrains from transferring oil revenues to the latter under the pretext of the lack of a fair distribution mechanism. Instead, it wants to transfer the money to other banks abroad. On the other hand, the Central Bank considers such behavior a violation against the Libyan people that denies them shares in their countries' wealth.

In a similar context, Libya's Public Company for Electricity announced that a plant in Sabha City located south of Tripoli, the capital, was subject to vandalism in the evening of Thursday, which caused a big explosion and the cut of electricity in Al Mahdeya district.

The company stated that the incident is one of a series of attacks that target the grid and that electricity will be provided to the district from alternative sources until the plant is fixed adding that rehabilitation works had started right away.

The company pointed out that attacks on the electricity grid and plants have been taking place daily in a time where the company suffers from a shortage in resources.

Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Libya (ASRSG), Stephanie Williams and the co-chairs of the Economic Working Group of the Berlin Process including Egypt, USA, and EU convened on 14 and 15 December, a technical meeting of representatives of Libya's main financial institutions at the UN Office in Geneva to reach an agreement on critical policy reforms.

These efforts are being undertaken to address the Libyan people's needs and establishing a more durable and equitable economic arrangement.

The meeting comes at a critical juncture for the Libyan economy, which suffers from structural problems, exacerbated by the impact of the conflict, as well as by the months-long oil blockade for most of 2020, and the Covid-19 epidemic. Also, oil sales lost $11 billion, and Libya's foreign exchange reserves have decreased dramatically in 2020 due to revenue loss and increased expenditures that diverted funds away from development spending.