African leaders urge UN intervention

Leaders in the sub-Saharan Sahel region of Africa called Friday on the United Nations to organise an international force "to neutralise the armed groups" sowing chaos in Libya.

The call came at the end of a regional summit on the "Nouakchott Process", named for an initiative launched in Mauritania's capital in March 2013 to boost security cooperation among 11 participating states.

In a statement, the leaders of Chad, Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Burkina Faso called on the United Nations Security Council to "set up an international force to neutralise armed groups, assist with national reconciliation and put in place stable democratic institutions," in Libya. The plan would be carried out in consultation with the African Union, they said.

Host President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz told reporters: "The elected bodies, notably the Libyan Parliament, need force to put in place their programmes."

Libya has been overwhelmed by chaos since the fall of Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with the country led by two parliaments and governments -- one Islamist and the other recognised by the international community -- fighting for power.

The summit, whose theme was "a space made for secure for global development," was the first since Algeria, Burkian Faso, Chad, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal signed up to the process.

Abdel Aziz, who also currently chairs the African Union, told his peers along with the other delegates, of a shared determination to carry out "a merciless fight against terrorism and organised crime".