December 2021

The UN Support Mission in Libya's (UNSMIL) Coordinator and Officer-in-Charge, Raisedon Zenenga, met Thursday in Tripoli with Acting Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR), Fawzi Al-Nuwairi, to discuss the latest deliberations in the HoR on finding a way forward on holding elections.

UNSMIL said on Twitter that Zenenga reaffirmed that holding elections is the main priority to meet the expectation of the 2.8 million Libyan people who had registered to vote.

The Head of the Libyan High Council of State (HCS) Khalid Al-Mishri welcomed the meeting of presidential candidates, including Fathi Bashagha and Ahmed Maiteeq upon the invitation of Khalifa Haftar, in Benghazi, reiterating his readiness to visit Benghazi, Al-Bayda and Tobruk in east Libya.

The National Center for Disease Control has confirmed the country's first two cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

In a statement Wednesday, the NCDC called on citizens to get vaccinated, avoid gatherings, and wear masks to counter the rapid spread of the virus.

For his part, Haider Al-Sayeh, Director of NCDC, said that the confirmed cases had no recent travel history, meaning that there is a community flow of the epidemic. Both cases were detected in Tripoli and are under follow-up, he added.

The Libyan Public Prosecution ordered pre-trial detention of the Minister of Culture, Mabrouka Tougi, over accusations of corruption in administration and finance transactions.