Libya’s newly appointed PM begins formation of unity govt

Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, Libya’s newly appointed Prime Minister, confirmed that he has started working on forming a new unity government.

“We are still working hard on forming a government of national unity. We have indeed begun the process of evaluation of all candidates and resumes that we received,” Dbeibah tweeted on Saturday.

“Our standards are efficiency, taking into consideration diversity and wide participation,” Xinhua news agency quoted the Prime Minister as further saying.

On February 5, the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) voted for a new Prime Minister and a Presidency Council in the UN-sponsored talks in Geneva.

Dbeibah was selected as the Prime Minister and Mohammad Younes Menfi as President of the Council.

The new authority will present a fresh government to the House of Representatives within 21 days.

Libya plunged into chaos after the fall of late leader Muammar Gaddafi’s government in 2011, witnessing prolonged conflict between the eastern-based Khalifa Haftar-led Libyan National Army (LNA) and the UN-recognised Government of National Accord in the country’s west.

On October 23, 2020, the Libyan delegations to the 5+5 Joint Military Commission talks in Geneva signed a UN-sponsored permanent ceasefire agreement.

The following month, the Joint Military Commission agreed on terms for the ceasefire implementation in the country, including the return of forces back to their camps and the withdrawal of foreign forces from conflict lines.

The delegations also agreed to exchange all prisoners, remove landmines in cooperation with the UN teams and the General Intelligence Service, and combat hate speech.