The UN Security Council has expressed concern at the possible impact of the coronavirus pandemic in Libya, calling on the warring parties to stop fighting “urgently” and allow unhindered access for humanitarian aid throughout the country.
The council said in a statement after closed video discussions and a briefing Thursday by the acting UN special representative that it was concerned at “the significant escalation of hostilities on the ground in Libya.”
It called on all UN member states to comply with an arms embargo and reaffirmed “the importance of the United Nations' central role in facilitating a Libyan-led and Libyan-owned inclusive political process.”
Fear of the new coronavirus is widespread in Libya. Dozens of people who had come into contact with the country’s first confirmed case have been quarantined.
A 73-year-old man who entered from neighboring Tunisia on March 5 was earlier this week announced as Libya’s first COVID-19 case. Health officials said Wednesday he was in stable condition.
The former prime minister of Libya, Mahmoud Jibril, has contracted the coronavirus, according to the Facebook page of his political party.
Jibril served as interim prime minister for almost a year during the civil war that toppled and later killed Moammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The veteran politician, now based in Egypt, was in stable condition in isolation at a Cairo hospital.
