Libya, neighboring states agree to cooperate on pullout of foreign fighters

TRIPOLI, Libya

Libya’s 5+5 Joint Military Commission (JMC) agreed on Monday with representatives from neighboring states to fully cooperate on the exit of all foreign fighters belonging to their countries from the Libyan territory, official Egyptian media reported.

The Prime Minister of Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh (C) poses for a photo after a meeting with delegates of the 5+5 Joint Military Commission in Sirte, Libya on March 15, 2021

During the two-day talks in Egypt’s capital Cairo and sponsored by the United Nations, representatives of Sudan, Chad and Niger expressed their readiness to receive the fighters belonging to their countries and coordinate with the Libyan parties to guarantee that they will not return to Libya, state-run Ahram Online news website reported.

After the meeting held in Geneva on October 8, the JMC signed a comprehensive Action Plan for the gradual, balanced, and sequenced withdrawal of mercenaries, foreign fighters and foreign forces from the Libyan territory.

The work of the 5+5 JMC, or the security track, is one of the three intra-Libyan tracks that the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) is working on, along with the economic and political ones.

These tracks were endorsed by the UN Security Council Resolution 2510 in 2020, which called on both parties in Libya to reach a permanent cease-fire agreement.

According to Ahram Online, all parties participating in the Cairo meeting stressed the importance of setting up permanent and effective channels of communication to end the years-long predicament, which stands in the way of Libya’s stability and is seen as a linchpin for shoring up a year-old cease-fire.

Libya has been locked in a civil war since the ouster and killing of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The situation escalated in 2014, splitting power between two rival governments: the UN-backed Government of National Accord based in the capital Tripoli and a Tobruk-based one allied with military commander Khalifa Haftar.

In February, Libya’s warring factions agreed to form an interim government under the auspices of the United Nations to run the North African country until the general elections scheduled for December 24.