Tripoli, 14 July 2014 - The United Nations Support Mission in Libya has been reducing its staff in Libya for the past week because of the prevailing security conditions in the country. We made an announcement about that a few days ago. The reasons behind this are purely due to concerns for the safety and security of the staff.

After the latest fighting on Sunday and because of the closure of Tripoli International Airport, the Mission concluded that it would not be possible to continue its work in delivering advice and technical support while at the same time ensuring the security and safety of its staff as well as their freedom of movement.

This is a temporary measure. Staff will return as soon as security conditions permit. The United Nations, which stood by the Libyan people in their revolution in 2011, will not abandon them as they seek to build a democratic state. The United Nations looks forward to continuing to work with its Libyan partners and hopes to return to Tripoli as soon as possible.

The United Nations once again calls on Libyan political forces and armed groups to refrain from the use of violence to achieve political objectives and reaffirms the necessity of political dialogue as a means to achieving national consensus on the priorities for building state institutions grounded in the rule of law.