UN chief taps Ghana diplomat as special envoy to Libya

The United Nations chief announced Friday he has appointed Hanna Serwaa Tetteh of Ghana as the global body’s new envoy to Libya, replacing Senegal’s Abdoulaye Bathily who stepped down last April.

The former foreign minister of Ghana, who more recently has been Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s special representative to the Horn of Africa, is the 10th person since 2011 to occupy the sensitive post of special envoy and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).

Tetteh’s appointment requires endorsement by the UN Security Council.

The post, in a North African country riven by conflict and civil war for over a decade, had been vacant since the surprise departure last April of Bathily.

At the time the Senegalese diplomat warned of a “lack of political will and good faith” by Libyan leaders and said the United Nations could not “operate successfully” in such a climate.

Libya has been mired in political chaos and conflict since the overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.