14 – 20 April: UNSC welcomes ‘interim’ GNU and PC

Apr 21, 2021 | International actors

This week, as the fighting in northern Chad threatens to spill over and destabilise Libya’s south, the UN Security Council (UNSC) adopted a resolution welcoming the ‘interim’ Presidential Council (PC) and Government of National Unity (GNU) as the entities charged with leading Libya to national elections in December.

On 11 April, the Libya-based Chadian rebel group Le Front pour l’Alternance et la Concorde au Tchad (FACT) launched a swift attack on a Chadian army bases in Tebisti, northern Chad. The rebel forces seized control of the key northern towns of Wour and Zourke. This came after Chadian president, Idriss Déby, was re-elected for a sixth term. On 14 April, FACT forces allegedly downed two army aircrafts and made significant advances into Chad, taking control of the Gouri pass near the strategic Faya town, and advancing to near Kanem region in central Chad, and Mossoro near Lake Chad. On 20 April, the Chadian military announced that Déby had been killed on the battlefield.

On 15-16 April, the GNU Prime Minister Abdul Hameed Dabaiba held high-level talks in Moscow. Dabaiba met a number of Russian officials including Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Bogdanov, the Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, the Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and the Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu. Dabaiba also spoke by phone to Vladimir Putin. According to the Russian Defence Ministry, Dabaiba expressed deep gratitude to President Putin for his support of the Libyan people.

On 16 April, the UNSC adopted resolution 2570 (2021) which welcomed ‘the interim Presidency Council and the interim Government of National Unity as the entities charged with leading Libya to national elections on 24 December’. The resolution called on the GNU to make preparations for presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 December.