The top U.N. envoy to Libya says the country has “lurched from one emergency to another” in recent weeks and that terrorist groups of all kinds may be taking root there.
Ghassan Salame briefed the U.N. Security Council Wednesday on the violence that erupted in Tripoli last month, shattering 16 months of what he called a “facade of calm.”
Sixty-one people were killed and 160 wounded in Tripoli before a cease-fire took hold earlier this week.
Salame said Libyan civilians suffer from “deteriorating standards of living ... every day is a personal emergency.”
He said the U.N. mission is working to revise security arrangements that will reduce the number of armed groups and also said the mission is committed to working toward a more equitable distribution of wealth.
Libya has been in nonstop political and social chaos since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was toppled and killed in 2011.
Numerous armed groups have been jockeying for power and control of the country’s oil wealth.
A U.N.-backed government installed in Tripoli has been struggling to assert its authority.
