1st LD Writethru: UN envoy reports alarming military escalation in Libya

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UNITED NATIONS, May 19 (Xinhua) -- The top UN envoy for Libya on Tuesday reported alarming military escalation in the country despite the threat of a broader COVID-19 outbreak.

"I had hoped to be able to deliver a more positive report to you today. But unfortunately, just when we think that the bottom has been reached in Libya, we somehow manage to achieve new depths of violence, heartlessness, and impunity," Stephanie Williams, the UN secretary-general's acting special representative for Libya, told the Security Council.

"Despite our determined efforts and the secretary-general's plea for an immediate cease-fire to allow Libyans to respond to the common threat of COVID-19, I regret to report that there has been no lull in the fighting between the government of National Accord (GNA) forces and Gen. (Khalifa) Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA)."

For nearly 15 months following the launch of Haftar's attack on Tripoli in April 2019, armed conflict has been raging in and around some of Libya's most densely populated areas, she said.

As a result of the intensifying armed hostilities, coupled with the dire socio-economic impact of COVID-19, 1 million people are now in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. This includes 400,000 internally displaced Libyans, along with 654,000 migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. In the past 12 months of warfare in and around Tripoli, 201,000 Libyans were forced to flee their homes, she said.

Between April 1 and May 18, the UN Support Mission in Libya documented at least 248 civilian casualties (58 killed and 190 injured), an 89 percent increase compared to the total civilian casualties recorded for the first three months of 2020, said Williams, who is leading the mission. "The vast majority of the total civilian casualties are attributed to forces affiliated to Gen. Haftar. Those guilty of crimes under international law must be brought to justice."

Williams also expressed concern over attacks on civilians, desecration of corpses, retribution, including looting, robberies and torching of public and private properties, in western coastal towns recently seized by forces of the GNA, the internationally recognized government.

On April 14, following the GNA forces' takeover of the city of Surman, some 60 km west of Tripoli, the Martyr Othman Hamza Company, affiliated with the GNA, broke into Surman prison and unlawfully released 401 prisoners, she said.

On April 5, in Tarhouna, a city southeast of Tripoli, an LNA-affiliated armed group killed at least nine civilians and demolished seven houses, after forcibly evicting families from their homes and abducting seven women, whose fate remains unknown, she said.

After their successful bid to retake six cities on the coastal road west of Tripoli in April, GNA forces are now seeking to roll back the LNA's foothold in southern Tripoli by forcing the redeployment of resources and disrupting their supply lines from Tarhouna, she said.

Emboldened by these recent successes, the GNA showed reluctance to reciprocate a unilaterally declared cessation of all military activities announced by the east-based LNA on April 29 on the occasion of Ramadan, said Williams.

On May 5, GNA forces initiated operations to seize control of the Wutiya airbase. After repeated attempts, supported by multiple airstrikes conducted by drones, GNA forces took control of the airbase on Monday, she said.

As has been the case on a number of occasions, there was direct involvement of foreign parties in this battle, either with drones or the presence on the ground of air defense systems, in blatant violation of the arms embargo.

"The control of this strategic airbase may trigger further escalation, turning the Libyan conflict into a pure proxy war," she warned.

Since April 24, Tripoli, and in particular Mitiga airport, has been subjected to nearly non-stop daily shelling. On May 7, heavy-artillery bombardment and "Grad" rocket attacks launched by pro-LNA forces impacted downtown Tripoli, with at least two civilians killed and three others injured. Another round of shelling on targets in and around Mitiga by Haftar's forces on May 15 hit three warehouses of the Central Committee for Municipal Elections, destroying a sizable amount of electoral material, she said.

"As we survey the carnage wrought by almost 15 months of unrelenting violence in Libya, I believe we have reached another turning point in the conflict. From what we are witnessing in terms of the massive influx of weaponry, equipment and mercenaries to the two sides, the only conclusion that we can draw is that this war will intensify, broaden and deepen with devastating consequences for the Libyan people."

She asked the Security Council to apply pressure on those regional and international actors that are fueling the conflict.

"As foreign intervention increases, the Libyans themselves are getting lost in the mix, their voices crowded out. We must not let Libya slip away. We must enable responsible Libyans to write their own future," said Williams. Enditem

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