Libya's rival governments [9] agreed Aug. 30 to hold national elections within the next two years with a view to re-unifying the country. After months of UN-sponsored talks, representatives from the country's eastern and western authorities—known as the 4+4 Committee—signed an pact on terms to restructure the electoral commission and address disputes over the process. The elections are to be run by an interim unified authority and "national sovereign institutions."
Since 2014, Libya has been divided between two governments: Abdulhamid Dbeibah [12]'s internationally recognised Government of National Unity in the west, and Khalifa Haftar [13]’s rival Government of National Stability in the east. (AfricaNews [14])
However, representatives of Libya's Amazigh (Berber), Tuareg and Tebu (Toubou [10]) communities have issued a declaration stating they have lost confidence in the UN Support Mission in Libya, rejecting the legitimacy of the 4+4 Committee and threatening to boycott any elections held under the current framework. Leaders of the Supreme Councils of the Amazigh and Tuareg peoples and the Tebu National Assembly sent a formal letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres in May, protesting that they have been excluded from the process.
These peoples are concentrated in strategic areas along Libya's territorial periphery. The Imazighen (plural of Amazigh) are largely in the Nafusa Mountains along the Tunisian border; the Tuareg control trans-Saharan corridors in the interior Fezzan region; the Tebu populate the southeastern desert regions bordering Sudan and Chad. (ToI [15])
