By IANS,
United Nations : UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will soon appoint a special envoy to Libya, which is facing violent anti-government protests, Xinhua reported.
“The secretary general made clear he intends to name a special envoy shortly,” said a UN release after Ban’s video and telephone conference held earlier Thursday with regional organisations and UN agencies to discuss the humanitarian situation in Libya and along its borders.
Ban stressed that “political change must be locally owned and locally led”.
Senior officials from the organisations and bodies such as the League of Arab States, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) joined in “urgently appealing” to Libyan authorities in allowing immediate and unimpeded access to the region to determine humanitarian needs, UN officials said here.
Inspired by the successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, protesters are demanding the ouster of Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi who has ruled the country for 41 years.