Abdoulaye Bathily, an African in Libya?

The former Senegalese minister Abdoulaye Bathily should be appointed special representative of the UN in Libya. A tricky post. His appointment marks Africa's return to the forefront in this currently stalled issue.

It is such a difficult post that it has been regularly vacant since 2011. Since the fall, then the death, of Muammar Gaddafi, the Leader of the Libyan revolution, several special representatives of the United Nations Organization (UN) in the countries — seven — followed one another. The last special representative, the Slovak Jan Kubis, did not escape the trend: he had resigned less than a year after his appointment to this position. Since the beginning of the year, therefore, it is the American Stephanie Williams who has been acting as special adviser to Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general.

This Monday, according to Jeune Afrique, the candidacy of Abdoulaye Bathily should be proposed to the Security Council. An application which, except last minute surprise, should be validated, making the Senegalese the first African to hold this position. A historian by training, Bathily was Minister of the Environment and Nature Protection from 1993 to 1998, then Minister of Energy and Hydraulics between 2000 and 2001. In 2012, he was appointed by the President Senegalese Minister of State Macky Sall.

The privileged African solution

With Denis Sassou N'Guesso, already Chairman of the African Union (AU) High Level Committee on Libya, this future designation therefore certainly represents the return to the forefront of Africa in the Libyan file after the failure of Western diplomacy, notably European. While Macky Sall is the current president of the AU, the fact that a Senegalese becomes a UN representative in Libya goes in this direction.

However, three years ago now, the AU wanted to be involved in this file, by appointing a joint envoy of the AU and the UN. A desire refused, which had led the continental institution to be excluded, month after month, from the file. According to JA, Denis Sassou N'Guesso would have had telephone conversations with Libyan delegations and with the Russians and the Americans. The trip by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Brazzaville in July must also have been an opportunity for the Congolese head of state to discuss Libya.

Impossible mission ?

Still, Abdoulaye Bathily's mission promises to be difficult. Because Libya is a veritable political quagmire, especially since the end of last year. Elections, including a presidential one, were to take place and had been postponed at the last moment without the foreign diplomats succeeding in agreeing to work on a clear postponement of the elections. While the months have passed, the elections have still not taken place and, worse, there is no longer any question today for the Libyans to go to the polls in the short, or even in the medium term.

Today, two Prime Ministers, Abdel Hamid Dbeibah and Fathi Bachagha, dispute the management of current Libyan affairs and try to create increasingly unstable games of alliances. For the Senegalese, it is therefore an extremely complicated mission. Especially since the balance sheet of its predecessors remains more than mixed. Former Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in 2014, Abdoulaye Bathily was then confined to his role in Central Africa. Three years ago, he led negotiations between the Libyan parties in Dakar. Serious things will begin for him once his candidacy has been accepted by the United Nations Security Council...