New UN envoy for Libya starts work in Tripoli
The United Nations’ new Libya envoy, Abdoulaye Bathily, took up post in Tripoli Friday, vowing to work towards elections in the country.
“I arrived in Tripoli today to assume my functions as the special representative of the secretary general for Libya and head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL),” he said in a statement.
Bathily said his priority was “to identify a consensual pathway towards the holding of inclusive and credible national elections, which should be held as soon as possible on a solid constitutional framework”.
“The United Nations remains committed to supporting Libya to hold inclusive presidential and parliamentary elections,” he added.
“The will of the millions of Libyan people who registered to vote (in December) should be respected.”
Bathily, who held several government posts in his native Senegal before joining the United Naitons nearly a decade ago, is the ninth UN envoy to Libya.
His nomination comes almost a year after his Slovak predecessor Jan Kubis resigned.
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