New york: The UN told the Security Council on Tuesday that the security landscape along Libya's western coast remains highly unstable due to intense competition among armed groups involved in human trafficking and fuel smuggling.

According to Anadolu Agency, Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, the special representative and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), highlighted the precarious security environment along Libya's western coast. The region faces significant challenges from armed actors engaged in trafficking illicit drugs, human trafficking, and fuel smuggling. Tetteh pointed out the emergence of drone warfare targeting vital infrastructure as a concerning trend, with recent strikes hitting the Zawia oil refinery and a power substation. The latter attack caused a major outage, removing over 700 megawatts of generation capacity. Tetteh called for a thorough investigation into these attacks on civilian assets, emphasizing the need for accountability for the perpetrators.

The security concerns extend to Libya's eastern region, where a senior intelligence official for the Libyan National Army (LNA), Maj. Gen. Faozi Mansuri, was assassinated in a car bombing in Benghazi on August 10. Tetteh also noted the political process remains stalled, though she underscored the efforts of the "Four Plus Four" Committee, which is expected to meet Thursday to finalize the legal and constitutional framework for national elections.

In addition to security issues, Tetteh highlighted an economic paradox faced by the country. Despite spending $1 billion monthly on fuel imports, Libya's electricity grid suffers from crippling shortages. She pointed to evidence of "large-scale diversion of subsidized fuel" into the security sector, describing it as an "unacceptable abuse of public resources."

Nissa Bek, a climate and security expert, informed the Council that extreme environmental shocks are exacerbating the political crisis. With temperatures nearing 50C (122F), Libyans endure power cuts lasting up to 15 hours per day. Bek mentioned a recent study in Tripoli, revealing that most domestic wells fail to meet drinking water standards due to contamination. She emphasized that for many Libyans, the state's presence is felt not through constitutions or political agreements but through basic services like electricity and water. Bek argued that when citizens are deprived of these services, they lose confidence in the state itself. She urged the Council to incorporate climate risks into conflict prevention strategies.