The African Union says it is closely monitoring developments in Libya where dozens of people have been killed in fighting this week, according to the World Health Organization.
Rebel forces are trying to seize the capital, Tripoli, where the country’s internationally recognized government is based.
The AU Commission says the current insecurity in Libya is not what it expected after Chairperson Moussa Mahammat Faki visited the country at the start of April.
His spokesperson, Ebba Kalondo told the SABC, Faki met leaders of the main warring factions, General Khalifa Haftar and Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj.
She says they both, at the time, embraced the AU’s call for dialogue.
“The African Union remains of the view that these development in Libya do not help the resolution for a crisis that is multidimensional and that has been the cause of great suffering to the Libyan people and the region that it resides and only negotiated inter Libyan political and inclusive dialogue of all the actors can come to a durable solution.”
The United Nations estimates around 3000 people have fled fighting around Tripoli.
Kalondo says the AU Commission is concerned about the many African migrants in Libya, thousands of who are held up in detention centres in the country.
“It is now more than ever important for all the sectors on the ground to assure the protection, the safety of all civilians especially those that already have so little protection to start with who are the migrants being helped in in these detention centres mostly women and children.”
Libya has had no stable government since 2011 when its leader Moammar Gadhafi was deposed and killed.
The AU maintains that it will still go ahead with its planned conference of reconciliation for Libya in July 2019.
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