A UNIFIED state budget was agreed by Libya’s rival state legislatures for the first time in more than a decade on Saturday.

The last time Libya had a unified budget was in 2013.

The country was fractured by the intervention of the Nato military alliance in 2011, which led to the ousting and killing of the country’s longtime revolutionary leader, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi.

Libya has remained split since a civil war in 2014.

The Central Bank of Libya (CBL) confirmed on Saturday that the eastern-based House of Representatives (HoR) and the Tripoli-based High Council of State of the Government of National Unity (GNU), had approved the budget, describing the move as an important step towards restoring financial stability in the divided North African nation.

Speaking during a signing ceremony by both sides in Tripoli, CBL governor Naji Issa said: “This is a clear declaration that Libya is capable of overcoming its differences when a unified vision for its future is forged.”

The GNU, led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, based in Tripoli, controls about a third of the northern part of the country.

The HoR in Tobruk controls the remaining two-thirds of Libya’s north and is led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and his large militia, the Libyan National Army.