Libya’s Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh opened the 22nd ordinary session of CEN-SAD’s Executive Council in Tripoli on Saturday, a meeting centred on restructuring the organisation and relaunching its institutions.
The session brings together the foreign ministers of Egypt, Tunisia, Chad, Djibouti, the Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Guinea-Bissau, along with heads of delegations from other member states, according to the Libyan News Agency.
Hanna Tetteh, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Libya, attended the opening ceremony alongside several diplomats.
In his address, Dbeibeh called for stronger regional cooperation against political, security and economic challenges. He singled out better coordination on counterterrorism, organised crime and irregular migration, and urged member states to strengthen border security and regional stability.
The Libyan premier also argued that the bloc should move from coordination to concrete joint action, drawing on the capacities and resources of member states for the benefit of their populations.
He said he hoped a timetable would be set to complete the transfer of CEN-SAD’s executive secretariat to its headquarters in Tripoli, and reaffirmed Libya’s readiness to support the organisation’s activities and African integration.
On the sidelines, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty met his Chadian counterpart, Abderaman Koulamallah, to discuss strengthening bilateral relations and regional issues of common interest.
The two also took up the relaunch of CEN-SAD institutions and the expansion of cooperation among members on counterterrorism, capacity building and development.
Tripoli hosted a CEN-SAD meeting in April, the first in the Libyan capital since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011.
The organisation was founded in Tripoli on 4 February 1998 and counts 28 African countries in the Sahel-Saharan area among its members, holding observer status at the United Nations.
Its executive secretariat was moved from Tripoli to N’Djamena, Chad, after 2011.
Source: amap
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