ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) on Monday called for an end to external interference and enforcement of United Nations arms embargo on war-ravaged Libya.
"The AU is working to enforcing the cessation of hostilities. In order to effect that there needs to be an end to external interference and the enforcement of UN arms embargo," Smail Chergui, AU commissioner for Peace and Security, said on the sidelines of the 33rd ordinary session of the AU assembly of heads of state and government in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
"We want the cessation of hostilities to be respected. We want the UN embargo also strictly to be respected," he said. "We want immediate cessation of all external interventions and interferences in Libyan affairs."
"We want to join the UN in an assessment mission... to evaluate what is necessary to oversee the cessation of hostilities," Chergui said. "We want to be part of the deployment of the observer mission in Tripoli and elsewhere in the country."
Solving the crisis in Libya is crucial, as the civil war in the north African country has had a knockoff effect on the Sahel region and even the Lake Chad basin, with the proliferation of arms trafficking and terror groups, the AU commissioner said.
The AU welcomes the recent Berlin declaration on the Libyan conflict as a first step to solving the crisis in Libya, he said.
Last month, world powers convened in the German capital to find a way to end the Libyan conflict. In a draft communique released at the end of the gathering, parties attending the conference called for credible, verifiable, sequenced and reciprocal steps, starting with a truce implemented by all parties concerned and leading to a comprehensive and lasting cessation of all hostilities including air operations over the territory of Libya.
"The cessation of hostilities shall furthermore include the redeployment of heavy weapons, artillery and aerial vehicles and their cantonment and the termination of all military movements by, or in direct support of, the conflict parties, in and over the entire territory of Libya, starting from the beginning of the ceasefire process," the draft communique said.
Insecurity and chaos have been rampant in Libya following the downfall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The Libyan conflict escalated in 2014, splitting power between two rival governments: the UN-backed Government of National Accord in the capital, Tripoli, and a government in the northeastern city of Tobruk allied with self-proclaimed Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Haftar.
