Ghanaian diplomat appointed as new UN envoy to Libya

The United Nations chief announced he has appointed Hanna Serwaa Tetteh of Ghana as the global body’s new envoy to Libya, replacing Senegal’s Abdoulaye Bathily who stepped down last April.

The former foreign minister of Ghana, who more recently has been Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s special representative to the Horn of Africa, is the 10th person since 2011 to occupy the sensitive post of special envoy and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).

The UN announcement said “Ms Tetteh brings to this position decades of experience at the national, regional and international levels, including most recently as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Horn of Africa from 2022 until 2024. Prior to that, she was the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the African Union and Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU) from 2018 to 2020, having earlier served as Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi.”

Tetteh’s appointment still requires endorsement by the UN Security Council.

The post, in a North African country riven by conflict and civil war for over a decade, had been vacant since the surprise departure last April of Bathily.

At the time the Senegalese diplomat warned of a “lack of political will and good faith” by Libyan leaders and said the United Nations could not “operate successfully” in such a climate.

Libya has been mired in political chaos and conflict since the overthrow of longtime ruler Muammar Gadhafi in 2011 after a NATO-backed uprising.

The UNSMIL acting head, Stephanie Khoury said last December the United Nations will convene a technical committee of Libyan experts in an attempt to resolve contentious issues and put the country on the path to long-awaited national elections.

A Government of National Unity (GNU) under Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah was installed through a UN-backed process in 2021 but the parliament no longer recognizes its legitimacy. Dbeibah has vowed not to cede power to a new government without national elections.