Acting head of the UNSMIL, Stephanie Williams, said in December that an estimated 20,000 foreign fighters were still in Libya, despite the agreed deadline for their withdrawal being 23 January 2021. These fears on 4 January 2021 led to neighbouring Tunisia, current president of the UN Security Council, calling for international monitors to be installed in Libya to support the ceasefire.

Today, Tunisia finds itself as a subcontractor of European migration policy. At the same time, a strict legal framework and security policies have been put in place to restrict access to the labor market to non-Tunisians, mostly sub-Saharan migrants, but also nationals. Migrants thus find themselves in an impasse, being unable to leave and unable to, with dignity, stay.

These paramilitary groups, formally called the al-Hash’d al-Shaabi, or the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) or Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), played a major role in the battle against the Islamic State (IS) and now are struggling to find their position within the security sector as international actors attempt to impose reform.

What did change under Trump, however, was the way the US accomplished diplomacy. The traditional way of engaging with regional partners changed considerably, from increased tolerance for regional strongmen, and decreased cooperation with classic allies such as the EU. This, of course, combined with a general skepticism towards multilateral processes in general, including those orchestrated by the UN.

On 2nd October 2020 in Juba, Sudan’s transitional government made significant and historic progress in concluding a set of peace talks with various rebel groups with actual legally binding agreements. However, there are still several issues that remain to be addressed. Some are due to issues in the structure of the agreements themselves. Others are more context specific, such as problems with implementation, possible spoilers and building mutual consensus.