The Libyan army on Friday demanded the withdrawal of Putist General Khalifa Haftar’s forces as well as the Russian Wagner Group and the Sudanese Janjaweed militia before a meeting of the Joint Military Commission in the city of Sirte in the next few days.
“The support forces for the Sirte and Jufra operations (by the Libyan army) welcome the holding of the Joint Commission (5 + 5) meeting in Sirte in the coming days,” reads a statement from the Libyan military.
The statement stressed “the need to withdraw the (Russian) Wagner and Janjaweed and Haftar withdrawal from the site.”
It said the Libyan army would not hold any meetings in an area under the control of foreign mercenaries.
Rival Libyan military officials agreed on Tuesday on a roadmap to carry out a ceasefire reached last month and are expected to meet in Sirte soon, UN acting envoy to Libya Stephanie Williams said the same day.
Sirte has been at the forefront of the latest conflict since mid-June. The key city of Sirte, located about 450 kilometers east of the capital Tripoli, is a strategic gateway to the country’s oil reserves.
The sides agreed to set up a military subcommittee to monitor the withdrawal of military forces to their respective bases and the departure of foreign forces from the front line.
Libya, with Africa’s largest proven crude oil reserves, has been embroiled in conflict for nearly a decade, following the overthrow and killing of longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi in a NATO uprising in 2011.
The country is divided between the UN-backed National Accord Government (GNA) in the capital in the west and rival authorities based in the east.
Fighting factions returned to the negotiating table in September in UN-backed talks with negotiations in Morocco, Egypt and Switzerland.
On November 9, political leaders will hold face-to-face talks in Tunisia.
Seventy-five people from all walks of life in Libya will take part in the talks, with the aim of drawing up a roadmap for the presidential and parliamentary elections, the UN stated on Tuesday.
Libyan parliamentarians met in Morocco
As part of the political process to bring peace and stability to the war-torn North African country, Libyan politicians from rival parties met for the latest round of peace talks in Morocco on Thursday, as hopes rise for a permanent political solution to the almost decade-long civil war.
Lawmakers met in the coastal city of Bouznika, south of Morocco’s capital Rabat, for talks ahead of a major meeting in Tunisia.
Details of the agenda for the talks in Morocco have not been released.
Negotiators are pursuing parallel efforts to mediate peace, with the military part of talks taking place this week for the first time on Libyan soil.
