Libya: African Union contact group meets in Congo-Brazzaville

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The city of Oyo, fief of Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, is hosting a high-level summit on Libya on Thursday. This is the first meeting of the contact group on Libya, whose creation was entrusted to the Congolese president during the last African Union summit.

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The objective of this meeting is to lay the foundations for the future inter-Libyan reconciliation forum that the AU wishes to organize on the African continent. Ten days after the resignation of the UN special envoy to Libya Ghassan Salamé , the AU is indeed more determined than ever to play a more important role in the return to peace in Libya.

Four countries are invited: Cyril Ramaphosa's South Africa, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi's Egypt, Abdelmadjid Tebboune's Algeria, which aims to host the future dialogue and should be represented by its Prime Minister, and finally the Chad of Idriss Deby. Four countries which will therefore have the heavy task, alongside the Congolese Denis Sassou-Nguesso, of thinking about a roadmap supposed to lead to the holding of an inter-Libyan reconciliation forum on the African continent. The United Nations and the African Union Commission will also be represented.

Involve " a maximum of actors "

Since the organization of this forum had been decided, all the attempts led in particular by the UN to reach a cease-fire have failed, to the point of pushing the special envoy Ghassan Salamé to resign. A gesture that testifies to the scope of the work to be done to bring peace to Libya, but which also opens " a window for greater involvement of the AU in this matter, " said a source at the Élysée Palace.

Today's meeting should notably allow us to reflect on the list of " participants " who will be invited to this future forum. " A complex issue ," said a source at the African Union, because the AU wishes to involve "as many actors as possible ." It is therefore no longer just the two enemy brothers of Libya, Fayez el-Sarraj and Marshal Haftar, but also the heirs of Gaddafi, and major players in civil society.

■ Ramtane Lamamra approached to be the new UN envoy

From our New York correspondent, Carie Nooten

For now, the Secretary General of the United Nations has only probed the members of the Security Council. Even if he certainly considered many high-profile profiles for this particularly complicated position, Antonio Guterres has so far retained only one name: that of Ramtane Lamamra . And the members of the Council would have responded favorably, for the most part.

Aged 67, former Minister of Foreign Affairs in Algeria from 2013 to 2017, renowned diplomat, Ramtane Lamamra ticks many prerequisites for the job. He is African first of all, which should appeal to the African Union, while for six years the regional organization has been calling for a common candidate as the UN envoy to Libya. He is a specialist in Sahel issues, a file that regularly occupies the Security Council, and is de facto very linked to the situation in Libya. Finally, an Arabic speaker, he could thus address directly the two parties opposing in Libya, both to the government of national harmony in Sarraj, and to Marshal Haftar's camp.

Wednesday evening, Antonio Guterres still appointed an acting representative, certainly to be able to release Ghassan Salamé: the American Stephanie Williams, deputy representative for Political Affairs, she will lead the mission in Libya pending the appointment. Ghassan Salamé should have briefed the Security Council today, but this session on Libya was postponed until the end of the month.

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• Libya
• Congo Brazzaville
• African Union

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