The UN Special Advisor on Libya, Stephanie Williams will reportedly leave her post by the end of June, Italian news agency Nova reported on Thursday.
Citing a report from the French news website, Africa intelligence, Nova said that Williams will be replaced by German diplomat Christian Buck, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Department at the German Foreign Ministry.
Buck served as the German Ambassador to Libya until 2018, and “has a great chance of getting Washington’s support in place of Williams in Tripoli,” according to Africa intelligence
Williams led reconciliation talks that led to the October 2020 ceasefire, and was appointed in December 2021 as the UN Secretary General’s Special Adviser to Libya.
The country plunged into turmoil after a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 toppled long-time leader Muammer Gaddafi, who was later killed. Rival governments emerged in the east and west, and effectively divided the country.
Elections were scheduled for December 2021, but differences over electoral laws, and the role of the judiciary resulted in the elections being indefinitely postponed.
Notably, the Libya Stats website conducted two opinion polls last month. In order to measure the extent of the people’s satisfaction with the performance of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
The first poll was put up for a day on Twitter. 224 people participated, with 94% of the voters believing that the UN’s role is “very bad.” 2% of the participants affirmed that UNSMIL is performing excellently, the remaining 4% said its role was good.
In the second poll, Libya Stats asked “Do you support the expulsion and replacement of the Adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Stephanie Williams, from Libya?”
After 253 people voted, 89% of them called for her dismissal and replacement. 11% voted in favour of her remaining.
Williams’ actions have received angry responses from politicians and officials. The former Head of the Libyan Media Corporation (LMC) Mohamed Bayou, said that “no patriotic Libyan who wants stability for his country can ignore the practices of this American diplomacy in Libya.”
“Leave, you failed conspirator,” Bayou added.
He said that Williams “is one of the main reasons behind the sharp political division in Libya now. She has completely failed in all of her steps and initiatives.”