Misurata_ There are “many challenges” facing the unification of the Libya national army but the enthusiasm of the Libyan youth to serve their country is a positive sign for the country’s future, Libya’s Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dabaiba said during a graduation ceremony for cadets at the Air Defense College in Misurata on Saturday.
Dabaiba, who is also acting Minister of Defense, has sounded the alarm on a major and known problem that is keeping all on edge when talking about bringing an end to the Libyan long political, economic and social crisis. The Libyan people and the international community understand well, and constantly remind everyone, that without establishing a unified national army and dismantling the militias there won’t be security and stability in the country.
In his speech during the ceremony, Dabaiba reiterated that the youth “are an energy that must be exploited in defending the homeland and its people, not wasted in killing their Libyan brothers”. In what seemed to be a vilification of any tribal or regional loyalty of the army, a common attitude adopted by armed groups in western Libya, Dabaiba called on the graduates to adhere to performing their “main mission which is defending the homeland, its borders and protecting its people”.
Dabaiba stressed that, despite the real challenges, the newly graduated cadets constitute “a real project for the unification of the Libyan army by means of their absorption, professional rehabilitation and their integration into it”.
Dabaiba was welcomed to the Air Defense College by the Chief of Staff of the western army General Mohamed Al-Hadad who is blamed by some members of the 5+5 Joint Military Commission (JMC) for his role in slowing down the process of opening the main coastal road east and west Libya.
In the 23 October 2020 an agreement was reached by the JMC on permanent ceasefire in all parts of Libya and the adoption of urgent security arrangements that allow the opening of the coastal road and facilitate traffic flow. Working from its headquarters in the city of Sirte the 5+5 commission has succeeded in removing landmines and clearing the road which is still waiting the military forces in Tripoli to allow citizens to travel to the east.