Libya: World Leaders Pledge Support
Tripoli--Libya’s interim National Transitional Council (NTC) met with world leaders in the French capital of Paris on Thursday, to discuss the country’s roadmap and transition, after decades of rule by Col Muammar Gaddafi.
The NTC leaders met with delegates from 63 nations and world bodies at a meeting hosted jointly by British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, which was also attended by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The “Friends of Libya” conference was convened to support Libya’s future and give the NTC international recognition, as well as provide the interim leaders with opportunity to set out their plans for a stable and democratic Libya.
Speaking at the conference, head of the NTC Mustafa Abdel Jalil promised a new constitution and elections within the next 18 months, calling upon Libyans to lead in restoration of stability, peace and reconciliation in the country.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy who chaired the meeting called for the beginning of the “reconciliation and forgiveness” process, announcing the meeting’s decision to free $15bn Libyan assets frozen in initial sanctions targeting Col Gaddafi.
Col Gaddafi in an audio message aired on Thursday vowed to fight on, promising no surrender. He was speaking during the marking of 42 years since he rose into power.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the conference passed that the UN would now take lead in assisting Libya’s new leadership, called on the Security Council to make urgent decision to deploy a civilian mission to stabilise the country.
British PM David Cameron said NATO operations would continue for as long as it was needed to protect civilians against threats from Col Gaddafi and his supporters.
Russia and China which initially opposed NATO’s campaign in Libya were also represented at the meeting, with Russia being the latest major power to recognise the interim authorities. NTC has promised significant rewards to countries that gave it most support.
Mogadishu, Somalia
UN Envoy Calls for Urgent Increase in Aid Supply
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has called for a rapid increase of aid supplies to the over 400,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) camped in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, fleeing drought and conflict.
The UN envoy pointed out a deadly combination of conflict and drought which he said have overwhelmed humanitarian interventions.
“We are seeing here a deadly combination of conflict and drought and the misery is out of proportion to what is being done”, said Guterres “The whole humanitarian community needs to scale up assistance to reach people wherever they are in Somalia.”
He was saying this during his visit to Mogadishu on Wednesday, where he met with IDPs camping in the capital.
He expressed his worries in the of lack of enough assistance that might see the humanitarian tragedy spin out of control, pointing out enormous difficulties of access and capacity for aid workers trying to help the needy in the war-torn country amid of insecurity.
A ship ferrying over 381 tonnes of food for the World Food Programme (WFP) operations from France is expected in Djibouti after 10 days, food donated by the French people to aid the WFP operations in the region, which is expected to feed over 22,600 people.
The US Agency for International Development announced on Thursday that it was providing an additional $23 million for drought operations in the region, with a specific $10 million for Somalia. The US drought assistance for the region now totals over $600 million, the largest contribution by a single country.
The UN says it needs an additional $1bn to handle the food crisis grappling the Horn of Africa, where over 12 million people across the region are in dire need of humanitarian assistance following a devastating drought in the region, the worst ever experienced in 60 years.
Thousands mainly being children have died due to starvation as they make long treks to refugee camps in neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya. 3.2 million others are in the brink of starving in Somalia, an incident which has been compounded by the long-standing war in the country. A state of famine has been formally declared in five regions of southern and central Somalia, including the area in and around the capital, Mogadishu.