The European Union and its Member States regret that the fighting has increased in Libya despite the international calls for a humanitarian truce to help contain the Coronavirus pandemic in the country. The challenging circumstances created by the Coronavirus pandemic make the need to halt the fighting in Tripoli and across the country even more urgent. We strongly condemn any attack against civilian population.

We urge all the relevant Libyan actors to immediately stop the fighting and engage in reaching a political solution to the crisis. The leadership of the two parties should commit to the draft ceasefire agreement developed by the Joint Military Committee (“5+5”) in the UNSMIL-facilitated Geneva talks, so that all available assets can be deployed in priority to contain the Coronavirus crisis.

We condemn the use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes and call on all parties to respect human rights and international law. A truce would facilitate taking all the necessary steps to protect the Libyan population and the most vulnerable in the country, including the Libyan IDPs as well as migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the detention centres, for whom the possible spread of the virus could have further catastrophic consequences.

(..) We call once again on all UN Member States to respect and uphold the UN arms embargo, to discontinue the influx of foreign fighters into Libya and to refrain from destabilising actions that could further deteriorate the already fragile situation in the country.

(..) On their side, the European Union and its Member States reiterate their full commitment to support the Berlin Process and the UN-led mediation efforts.

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