On Tuesday, the legislative bodies of Libya’s two rival governments announced that they had reached a cooperative agreement to appoint new leadership of the country’s central bank.
The joint statement, which came after two days of deliberations hosted by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), indicated that the parties would select a new central bank governor and board of directors within 30 days.
The two sides also agreed to extend talks by five days, to September 9.
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Infighting between rival political factions and armed militias has plagued Libya for more than two decades since the NATO-supported popular overthrow of longtime dictator Saddam Hussein in 2011 created a power vacuum.
While attempts to reunify have failed, in 2020, the country’s two recognized governmental actors, the Benghazi-based House of Representatives in the east and the western-based High State Council in Tripoli, agreed to a ceasefire that stabilized the region significantly.
Over the last month, however, UNSMIL warned that the oil-rich North African nation was speeding towards a crisis [2] after Mohamed al-Menfi, chair of the Presidency Council in Tripoli, attempted to remove the central bank’s longtime governor.
East-aligned groups proceeded to shut down all oil production in protest, demanding the removal be postponed.
Unable to process transactions for over a week, Libya’s central bank is the sole holder of the country’s oil revenues and pays the salaries of a huge portion of the population.
Since the announcement of the deal, oil prices have decreased by 5% in line with the anticipated increases in production.