Former Senegalese minister and UN diplomat Abdoulaye Bathily will be the new UN envoy to Libya after the Security Council approved the appointment.
This ends a nine-month search to fill the post, amid increasing chaos in the oil-rich north African nation.
The last UN special representative, Jan Kubis, resigned in November last year after 10 months on the job, and a number of replacements proposed by Secretary General Antonio Guterres were rejected by council members, Libya or neighbouring countries.
In December, Mr Guterres appointed veteran American diplomat Stephanie Williams, a former UN deputy special representative in Libya, as his special adviser — a job that did not require council approval.
She resigned at the end of July, leaving the UN mission in Libya without a leader amid a constitutional and political crisis.
Mr Guterres said Mr Bathily brings 40 years of experience to his new role in Libya.
Mr Bathily held various ministerial positions in Senegal, taught history for more than 30 years at the Universite Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, held senior UN positions including in Mali and Central Africa, and served as the independent expert for the strategic review of the Libya mission in 2021.
He has doctorates from Universite Cheikh Anta Diop and the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom and is fluent in English, French, Soninke and Wolof.
Libya’s transitional government, which opposed Mr Bathily’s nomination, reportedly sent a protest letter to Mr Guterres, which raises questions about how effective the new envoy can be in trying to resolve the country’s crisis.
The United States welcomed the appointment, saying heavy fighting that broke out between militias in Tripoli last month "underscored the unsustainability of the situation in Libya, making clear the need for all sides to work in good faith and with a sense of urgency to reach agreement on a constitutional framework and concrete timeline for elections".
"The United States will provide full support to Special Representative Bathily as he mediates the Libya-led political process, and we call upon the international community to work in lockstep with the special representative," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Libya has been in chaos since a popular uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. The county has for years been split between rival administrations, each backed by militias and foreign governments.
UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo gave a warning on Tuesday that failure to resolve Libya’s political crisis and hold delayed elections posed a growing threat to the country.
She highlighted recent clashes that killed at least 42 people and injured 159 others, according to a tally released by Libyan authorities.
The continuing stalemate grew out of the failure to hold elections in December and the refusal by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who led the transitional government, to step down. In response, the country’s east-based parliament appointed a rival prime minister, Fathi Bashagha, who has for months sought to install his government in Tripoli.
Underlining the challenge facing Mr Bathily, clashes broke out in the western outskirts of Tripoli late on Friday and early Saturday as forces aligned with Mr Dbeibah's government consolidated their control over the capital.
The fighting in Warshafala district, along with a major pro-Dbeibah group taking over a military headquarters in southern Tripoli, come a week after groups allied to the rival prime ministers engaged in Libya's heaviest fighting in two years.
The clashes in and around the capital fighting dislodged several groups that had aligned with Mr Bashagha, who served as interior minister in the former Tripoli government.
Following last week's fighting, both Mr Bashagha and Mr Dbeibah made visits to Turkey, which helped the now-divided western factions fight off an eastern assault in 2020.
Turkey retains a military presence around Tripoli, including drones that could play a critical role in deciding the outcome of any major bout of warfare if it decided to back a side.
In the fighting late on Friday and early on Saturday, a witness told Reuters that mortars were fired in Warshafana, a district of farmland, villages and patches of urban sprawl between Tripoli and the western city of Zawiya.
During last week's fighting, a major Bashagha-aligned faction based in Zawiya was said to be among groups that were repulsed from the outskirts of the capital.
In the southern Tripoli district of Ain Zara, a powerful faction that backed Mr Dbeibah during last week's fighting took over a security headquarters. Fighters and vehicles bearing its insignia stood guard there on Saturday morning with checkpoints set up nearby.
With reporting from AP and Reuters.
Business Insights
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Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Strait of Hormuz
Fujairah is a crucial hub for fuel storage and is just outside the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route linking Middle East oil producers to markets in Asia, Europe, North America and beyond.
The strait is 33 km wide at its narrowest point, but the shipping lane is just three km wide in either direction. Almost a fifth of oil consumed across the world passes through the strait.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the strait, a move that would risk inviting geopolitical and economic turmoil.
Last month, Iran issued a new warning that it would block the strait, if it was prevented from using the waterway following a US decision to end exemptions from sanctions for major Iranian oil importers.
Retirement funds heavily invested in equities at a risky time
Pension funds in growing economies in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have a sharply higher percentage of assets parked in stocks, just at a time when trade tensions threaten to derail markets.
Retirement money managers in 14 geographies now allocate 40 per cent of their assets to equities, an 8 percentage-point climb over the past five years, according to a Mercer survey released last week that canvassed government, corporate and mandatory pension funds with almost $5 trillion in assets under management. That compares with about 25 per cent for pension funds in Europe.
The escalating trade spat between the US and China has heightened fears that stocks are ripe for a downturn. With tensions mounting and outcomes driven more by politics than economics, the S&P 500 Index will be on course for a “full-scale bear market” without Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, Citigroup’s global macro strategy team said earlier this week.
The increased allocation to equities by growth-market pension funds has come at the expense of fixed-income investments, which declined 11 percentage points over the five years, according to the survey.
Hong Kong funds have the highest exposure to equities at 66 per cent, although that’s been relatively stable over the period. Japan’s equity allocation jumped 13 percentage points while South Korea’s increased 8 percentage points.
The money managers are also directing a higher portion of their funds to assets outside of their home countries. On average, foreign stocks now account for 49 per cent of respondents’ equity investments, 4 percentage points higher than five years ago, while foreign fixed-income exposure climbed 7 percentage points to 23 per cent. Funds in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are among those seeking greater diversification in stocks and fixed income.
• Bloomberg
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
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The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
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Tips for job-seekers
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David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
match info
Maratha Arabians 138-2
C Lynn 91*, A Lyth 20, B Laughlin 1-15
Team Abu Dhabi 114-3
L Wright 40*, L Malinga 0-13, M McClenaghan 1-17
Maratha Arabians won by 24 runs
Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder MHEV
Power: 360bhp
Torque: 500Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh282,870
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Dark Souls: Remastered
Developer: From Software (remaster by QLOC)
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Price: Dh199
West Asia Premiership
Dubai Hurricanes 58-10 Dubai Knights Eagles
Dubai Tigers 5-39 Bahrain
Jebel Ali Dragons 16-56 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
SM Town Live is on Friday, April 6 at Autism Rocks Arena, Dubai. Tickets are Dh375 at www.platinumlist.net
