On Tuesday, Brigadier General Khaled Mazen assumed his duties as Minister of Interior in the Government of National Unity (GNU). He received the former Interior Minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Fathi Bashagha who briefed him on the latest developments made in the security sector, and wished him success during the coming period.
A number of the MoI’s undersecretaries, heads of departments and agencies, heads of security directorates attended the handover ceremony.
Notably, the GNU took power in Tripoli on Tuesday, officially beginning a tenure designed to end with democratic elections later this year.
The ceremony in Tripoli came a day after Prime Minister Abdel-Hamid Dbaiba and his cabinet were sworn in before lawmakers in the eastern city of Tobruk. The Libyan Parliament had endorsed the GNU last week amid international pressure to implement a UN-brokered political roadmap.
That roadmap, agreed to by the UN-chosen Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) last year, set 24 December as the date for general elections.
The smooth transfer of power is seen as an important step to end the chaos in the war-torn country. The lack of a proper handover among legislators in 2014 was a major factor in the split of Libya’s institutions.