News / North Africa

Libya factions form UN-backed unity government

Tuesday, 19 January 2016 10:50 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 19 January 2016 11:33 AM ]

United Nations envoy for Libya Bernardino Leon ©AFP

Libya’s rival factions have announced the formation of a unity government as part of an UN-brokered peace deal aimed at stemming the ongoing chaos in the North African country.

The make-up of the new Libyan government was announced by the unity presidential council on Tuesday.

The Tunis-based presidential council said in a statement that it has agreed on a 32-member cabinet with members drawn from across the country.

It is not clear where the new government would be based in or can govern the oil-rich North African country.

In October last year, UN special envoy for Libya Bernardino Leon proposed the formation of a power-sharing government with a list of candidates for the new cabinet.

He nominated Fayez Sarraj a member of the Tripoli-based parliament, as the Libyan prime minister.

Also among the new government’s posts, were three deputies for the prime minister, representing the country’s east, west and south, and two ministers to complete a presidential council.

Libya has been grappling with violence and political uncertainty since the oil-rich country’s former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, was deposed in an uprising in 2011.

Armed groups and regional factions have been fighting for power over the past years.

Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj (4th L) and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini (4th R) attend the talks between EU and Libya delegations in Tunis on January 8, 2016. ©AFP

Since August 2014, when militias seized the capital, Tripoli, Libya has had two parliaments and two governments with one, the General National Congress (GNC), run by the rebels in the capital and the other, which is internationally-recognized, based in the northeastern city of Tobruk.

The proposal for national unity government was dismissed by the rival factions on October 12.

Mahmud Abdel Aziz, a lawmaker from the GNC, said that the proposed government “is rejected” as “it will deepen difference between the Libyan people.”

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