Secretary-General of the UN Antonio Guterres announced the appointment of Senegalese Abdoulaye Bathily as Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), succeeding Jan Kubis.
Bathily’s managed to beat former Tunisian minister of foreign affairs Monji Hamdi and former Algerian FM Sabri Boukadoum to the post.
Previously, Bathily served as special adviser to the secretary-general on Madagascar and deputy special representative of the UN Mission in Mali.
In 2021, Bathily served as an independent expert for the strategic review of the UNSMIL.
“The UN noted that Bathily has more than 40 years of experience working with his government, academic institutions, regional organisations, and the UN system,” a statement by the UN said.
Born in 1947, Bathily joined the UN in 2014, where he was assigned the post of UN envoy for Central Africa, deputy special representative of the secretary-general in the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali from 2013 to 2014, and as special representative for Central Africa and head of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa in Gabon from 2014 to 2016.
For his part, Head of the Interim National Unity Government Abdul Hamid Al-Dbeibeh welcomed the appointment of Bathily as the new UN envoy to Libya.
“We confirm our full support for his work and will push for a comprehensive political solution that accelerates the issuance of a consensual constitutional rule to hold elections,” he said in a post on his Facebook page on Saturday.
Recent fighting in the Libyan capital of Tripoli raised fears of a wider conflict in Libya due to the political confrontation between Al-Dbeibeh and Fathi Bashaga — Head of the Libyan government appointed by the House of Representatives — who is seeking to install a new government in the capital.
