Munich: A senior United Nations official called the arms embargo on Libya a "joke" as governments struggled to hold together efforts to end a civil war in the North African country.

Officials gathered in Munich on Sunday expressed concern about "the deplorable recent violations" of the weapons embargo, while also reaffirming the conclusions of a summit in Berlin last month, which sought to move toward ending the civil war between Fayez al-Sarraj, Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister, and his rival General Khalifa Haftar.

This drawing by a migrant artist nicknamed Aser, provided in 2019, depicts refugees in Libya who are trapped in the fighting between forces of military commander Khalifa Hifter and militias allied with the UN-supported government in Tripoli. Credit:Aser/AP

But prospects for progress are bleak, a circumstance illustrated by those who didn't attend. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was in the city for the Munich Security Conference, sent a more junior official. US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, who left the conference a day earlier, dispatched the deputy assistant secretary of state for the Maghreb and Egypt.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas acknowledged that the Berlin summit had failed to achieve much progress and success won't be a "simple task." Stephanie Williams, a UN deputy special envoy who attended the meeting, was more blunt.

Williams said that the situation on the ground "remains deeply troubling", the truce "is holding only by a thread" and there had been "hundreds of violations reported" by land, sea and air.

Libyan Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar in Berlin last month for talks.Credit:Getty Images

"The arms embargo has become a joke," Williams said at a news conference. "We all really need to step up here," four weeks after leaders pledged to halt weapons deliveries and work toward a ceasefire. "Libya is awash in weaponry, and now advanced weaponry," she said.

The Libyan civil war, triggered 10 months ago by Haftar’s march on Tripoli, has killed more than 2000 people and exploded into a proxy conflict drawing regional and global powers. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have been backing Haftar, who is also supported by Russian mercenaries, while Turkey has been sending troops and supplies to the internationally recognised government.

Libya’s bloody civil war has claimed at least 2000 lives.Credit:AP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought a diplomatic victory by inviting leaders of the competing sides to Berlin on January 19, but the hard-won truce fell apart almost immediately – pushing political and economic talks ever further into the distance.

SOS Mediterranee team members from the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking approach a boat in distress with 30 people on board in the waters off Libya on December 16.Credit:MSF

A joint military committee aiming to lock in a permanent cease-fire will meet in Geneva from February 18.

Bloomberg

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