Unity govt struggles to make impact in Libya

Tripoli / AFP

Two months after his dramatic arrival in Libya’s capital, Fayez Al-Sarraj’s unity government has won international support but had little impact inside a divided country plagued by extremists, analysts say.
The head of the Government of National Accord sailed into Tripoli under naval escort on March 30 in defiance of a militia alliance that has been in control of the capital since August 2014, after it refused to let him fly in.
His arrival sparked hopes of a way out of the political, security and economic crises that have gripped Libya since the 2011 revolution that ousted longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
But confined to the naval base where it receives visiting foreign ministers, the UN-backed GNA has yet to draw up any clear roadmap for ending Libya’s anarchy and expelling extremists from their strongholds.
Its targets of restoring peace and healing divisions born of five years of conflict are being stymied by a rival government in the east that refuses to cede power until a repeatedly delayed vote of confidence in Libya’s elected parliament from which it takes its own legitimacy.
The rival administration, which itself had international recognition before the rise of Sarraj, controls eastern Libya through militias and units of the national army loyal to controversial General Khalifa Haftar, a sworn opponent of the GNA.
For Mattia Toaldo, a Libya specialist with the European Council on Foreign Relations, the GNA has already lost a “precious two months” with its failure to secure a vote of confidence.
“While he has received several foreign delegations and made visits abroad, he (Sarraj) is invisible inside Libya,” said Toaldo.
Sarraj “has not found the time—nor the courage—to address the east of the country. It’s not a question of lacking the military strength, but rather absence of political will and… political initiative”.
Othman Ben Sassi, a former member of the revolution-era National Transitional Council, said “the only achievement of this (GNA) government has been the fact that it has won international support”.
On the ground, “it’s the militias, as before, that control the situation. As for the unity government, it doesn’t control anything,” he said.
East-west divide
The task facing Sarraj, a 56-year-old political newcomer, is “extremely fragile”, according to Kader Abderrahim, a specialist on Islamism at the Paris-based Institute for International and Strategic Affairs.