By Sami Zaptia.
London, 30 July 2021:
The main stretch of Coastal Road passing through the former fighting front between the pro and anti-Khalifa Hafter forces between the cities of Misrata and Sirte has finally been reopened today.
The reopening was announced by the 5+5 Joint Military Commission (JMC) meeting in another round of talks in Sirte. The JMC is made up of anti and pro-Hafter members.
The 23 October 2020 ceasefire agreement
The reopening of the Coastal Road linking western and eastern Libya is one of the main conditions of the 23 October 2020 ceasefire agreement between the anti and pro-Khalifa Hafter forces.
The ceasefire allowed for political and military reconciliation leading to the restart of oil production and the selection of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) which gave birth to the Government of National Unity – the first unified Libyan government since 2014.
The ceasefire agreement had:
- Agreed an immediate and permanent ceasefire in all parts of Libya.
- Called for the withdrawal of all forces from fighting fronts.
- Called for the withdrawal of all foreign mercenaries and forces from Libya within 90 days from 23 October 2020.
- Called for the suspension of all training of troops domestically and abroad.
- Called for the suspension of international defence agreements.
- Agreed on the formation of a Joint Operations Room for a joint police and military force.
- Agreed on the identification and categorization of all militias and a mechanism for their reintegration (DDR).
- Agreed on confidence-building measures by resuming travel between west and east Libya
- Ending hate speech.
- Exchanging prisoners.
- Reorganizing the Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG).
- Agreed to monitor the ceasefire.
- Agreed to refer the ceasefire agreement to the UN Security Council to adopt in a Resolution.
Immediate and permanent ceasefire agreement throughout Libya signed in Geneva | (libyaherald.com)
