Libya's rival parties sign 'permanent' nationwide cease-fire
The Government of National Accord and Libyan National Army agreed to the truce during UN-sponsored talks in Geneva.
Libya’s two main rival factions agreed to a permanent cease-fire on Friday in what the United Nations described as a historic turning point in the county’s six-year-long civil war.
Military representatives from the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) and Gen. Khalifa Hifter’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) signed the cease-fire during UN-mediated talks in Geneva. The truce, which takes effect immediately, calls for foreign fighters and mercenaries to leave Libyan territory — air, land and sea — within the next three months, the UN mission in Libya said.
“It is my most fervent hope that today’s agreement will be celebrated by future generations of Libyans as representing that first, crucial, brave step towards a comprehensive settlement of the long Libyan crisis,” acting UN Libya envoy Stephanie Williams said at the signing ceremony.
The North African country descended into chaos amid a 2011 uprising that overthrew and killed longtime dictator Moammar al-Gadhafi. The country is now ruled by two administrations whose rivalry has become a full-blown proxy war.
