Libya
(asked on 5th November 2014) - View Source
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effects of fighting between government factions and Islamist rebels on populated residential areas of Benghazi, Libya.
This question was answered on 11th November 2014
We are gravely concerned by the fighting between rival militias in Benghazi since May 2014. The UN estimate that 15,000 people have been displaced from their homes around Benghazi, and there have been reports that over 200 people have been killed since mid-October. The fighting in Benghazi also undermines the United Nations-led peace talks and diminishes the prospects of a stable and prosperous Libya. At a meeting in Paris on 30 October 2014, the UK Special Envoy for Libya, Jonathan Powell, alongside his international counterparts, from the African Union, the Arab League, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Spain, Turkey and the United States, reaffirmed that there is no military solution to the current situation in Libya. They called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, and a return to dialogue under the auspices of the United Nations. We are also concerned by reports that groups such as Ansar Al-Sharia (Benghazi), who have publicly rejected dialogue and the democratic process, are involved in the fighting. This underlines the threat posed by extremists to Libya and the wider region.
We are gravely concerned by the fighting between rival militias in Benghazi since May 2014. The UN estimate that 15,000 people have been displaced from their homes around Benghazi, and there have been reports that over 200 people have been killed since mid-October. The fighting in Benghazi also undermines the United Nations-led peace talks and diminishes the prospects of a stable and prosperous Libya. At a meeting in Paris on 30 October 2014, the UK Special Envoy for Libya, Jonathan Powell, alongside his international counterparts, from the African Union, the Arab League, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Spain, Turkey and the United States, reaffirmed that there is no military solution to the current situation in Libya. They called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, and a return to dialogue under the auspices of the United Nations. We are also concerned by reports that groups such as Ansar Al-Sharia (Benghazi), who have publicly rejected dialogue and the democratic process, are involved in the fighting. This underlines the threat posed by extremists to Libya and the wider region.