On Tuesday, Stephanie Williams, Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General, and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), renewed her call for an immediate humanitarian pause to the fighting, during the holy month of Ramadan. Hoping this would pave the way for a lasting ceasefire, based on the outcomes of the UNSMIL facilitated 5+5 Joint Military Committee talks.
She also stressed the importance of returning to political talks, as endorsed by the Berlin Conference resolutions.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Italy and the EU issued a joint statement on Saturday, calling for a humanitarian truce in Libya, and a resumption of peace talks.
“We want to unite our voices with those of the U.N. Secretary-General (Antonio) Guterres, and his Acting Special Representative for Libya, in their call for a humanitarian truce in Libya,” the statement said.
“We call on all the Libyan actors to get inspired by the spirit of the Holy Ramadan, engage in resuming talks for a genuine ceasefire,” said the statement, signed by the EU’s Josep Borrell, France’s Jean-Yves Le Drian, Italy’s Luigi di Maio and Heiko Maas of Germany.
Libya’s conflict escalated sharply this month, with fierce fighting on several different fronts in the west of the country, despite urgent calls from the UN, and aid agencies for a truce to tackle the global COVID-19 crisis.