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| Fayez Mustafa al-Sarraj and Khalifa Haftar. Photo: Sourced from online |
It was on Sunday, January
19, 2020, and the venue was in Berlin, Germany. There, they gathered. Leaders
and diplomats had met and the agenda for the gathering was not far-fetched. The
world’s superpowers had met two peeved strong men from war-ravaged North
African state of Libya to unlock their ‘horns’ as they continuously fight for
supremacy over who rules their country.
But, even before the Libya
Summit could come off, it was as predictable as clockwork as it was impossible
for the world powers to get the two factions sign a ceasefire deal. The [foreign]
protagonists themselves involved in the war had attended that Berlin Summit
holding on to their respective entrenched positions. There was no way these
protagonists could convince each other let alone getting their candidates in
Libya to halt the war.
Writing an opinion piece on
Politico.eu dubbed “Road to peace in
Libya goes through Turkey”— a day before the Libya Summit, Turkey’s President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ostensibly expressed anger aimed at crashing Haftar’s
power grab.
“Turkey fully supports
Libya’s U.N-backed, legitimate government. Under the most recent security and
military cooperation agreements, we pledged to protect the Libyan government
from coup plotters. In this regard, we will train Libya’s security forces and
help them combat terrorism, human trafficking and other serious threats against
international security,” wrote Mr. Erdoğan.
Considering the enormous
support Khalifa Haftar enjoys from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, France,
Russia, US and Saudi Arabia, calling the bluff of the Libya Summit of a no
ceasefire deal was not anything too hard to do. He had before that Sunday meeting
angrily left Moscow, in Russia, over yet another ceasefire deal without
appending his signature to documents.
Then in Sarraj’s camp are
another group of supporters being Sudan, Jordan, Turkey, Qatar, Germany and
Italy. Certainly, this is more than a complex war. A war that its protagonists
would find it extremely hard to end it themselves.
Just 10 days after the
Libya Summit, the arms embargo that was placed on Libya is in tatters.
“The United Nations
Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) deeply regrets the continued blatant
violations of the arms embargo in Libya, even after the commitments made in
this regard by concerned countries during the International Conference on Libya
in Berlin,” says unmissions.org.
We are, as well, told
that numerous cargo and other flights have been observed landing at Libyan
airports in the western and eastern parts of the country providing the parties
with advanced weapons, armoured vehicles, advisers and fighters.
For security analyst Adib
Saani who heads the Jatikay Centre for
Human Security and Peace Building, “It [peace talks] should go beyond the
rhetoric. Concrete actions need to be put on the ground. These various actors
need to talk among themselves. If it’s the oil they want which is quite obvious
then they should find a way to divide the oil [zone] among themselves.” He
spoke in an exclusive interview with the International
Dialogue.
Of a truth, the fire in Libya
could be doused with the intervention of a neutral arbiter. Does the African
Union [AU] not overly qualify for this role?
It does!
Nonetheless, you ask
yourself that in all the back and forth where is the AU? The African Union since
the toppling of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi till date has actually become a
confused group of states than ever. Was there a unified front of the
continent’s powerful states to intervene either diplomatically or militarily in
America’s needless intervention in Libya? Is the AU doing so now in the Sarraj-Haftar
war? No!
The AU is either clueless
or perhaps unable to convince world powers that it has the credibility to
resolve the crisis in Libya.
This, when Ghana’s
Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor
Botchwey recently met top government officials in Turkey, she tried
covering up AU’s chronic shame.
“I believe that the steps
that Turkey is taking with Russia and others to bring peace to Libya is a step
that I think it's in the right direction. However, may I also add that, I think,
it's important in taking these steps also to involve the Continental Union,
which is the African Union,” she said.
Really? Why does the AU
still sit aloof waiting for Turkey or Russia to invite her to the peace process
in Libya before it acts?
Madam Ayorkor Botchwey
like many African leaders, indeed, “think that the solution sometimes lie
within [Africa],” as she said in Turkey, yet they forever prefer to be
spoon-fed. What they forget or rather deliberately fail to realize is that the
world has no time waiting for Africa.
In recent years, regional
and sub-regional organizations have become more powerful and interested in
matters affecting their regional or sub-regional bloc. The Economic Community
of West African States [ECOWAS] became a pacesetter in resolving Gambian
2016/17 election debacle which would have been one of the bloodiest political
conflicts of our time. Are these regional blocs useful than the AU? Perhaps,
yes!
The African Union cannot
justify its silence in the Libyan crisis. The Union has not shown enough
leadership for the many souls perishing in the North Africa state. If the
European Union among other reasons is concerned about Libya because that is the
African migrants’ gateway to their territory, is the AU also not concerned that
thousands of its labour force are dying on the Mediterranean? Must the AU be
told that repeatedly failing the same examination of incompetence is but
shameful?
If the AU were a force to
reckon with, it would have by now stood face-to-face with the protagonists in
Libya’s war and levelled sanctions on them to retract its supply of weapons to
the North African state. And, these let-alone powerful states would have
quietly obliged such a command from the continental body. Rather, it is the
opposite.
Africa’s leaders have
failed Africans. They hardly value human lives. Saying the truth as it is or
ought to be, thousands more of our compatriots will continue to perish in Libya
since resolving of the conflict there is left in the hands of the same world
powers that lied in toppling Muammar Gaddafi. Today, Libya— once a beautiful young
woman with promising breasts— woefully wobbles on her feet. The falcon, indeed,
cannot hear the falconer!
Is there an end in sight
to Libya’s war? No. If for anything, the fire in the North African country
could be doused temporarily. Remember, it is not that simple and easy for the
protagonists to walk away from the dining table of Libya knowing that it is leading
on the table of African countries with the highest volumes of oil reserves. Libya
was Africa’s Europe and the Americas. It was rich and fertile
soil for growth.
We— the AU— looked on to
its destruction. If you are an African reading this piece, please skip your
food today so we join hands in mourning a lost jewel.
The
writers, Solomon Annan and Solomon Mensah, are Ghanaian journalists who have
interest in the world’s politics with an unflinching eye mainly on what
pertains in Africa. Views expressed here are solely theirs and do not, in
anyway, reflect the editorial policy of this media organisation.
Email:
internationaldialogue2@gmail.com
Twitter:
@abisolo7 & @aniwaba
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