There were those who worried that deposing
Libya’s strongman Moammar Gadhafi would have unforeseen
consequences, including political anarchy in the country and a
flood of refugees crossing the Mediterranean from there to
Europe.
It seems they were right. Since his death
in 2011, following a NATO-led campaign, in which Britain took
part, this has indeed proved to be the case.
In fact, even the May 22 massacre of 22
people at a rock concert in Manchester by a British-born son
of Libyan refugees, might be seen as a type of “blowback.” The
perpetrator, Salman Abedi, was reportedly in Libya just days
before the attack.
His parents are Libyan-born refugees who
fled Gadhafi’s Libya in 1991 and came to Britain after 1993.
It is thought they returned in 2011 following Gadhafi’s
overthrow.
Abedi’s father, Ramadan Abedi, and one
brother, now in Tripoli, have been arrested there by a
militia, the Special Deterrence Forces. Another brother was
arrested in Manchester.
The elder Abedi had been a member of the
Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) before escaping to
England. The British government at the time described the
group, which it banned, as part of the wider global Islamist
extremist movement inspired by al Qaeda.
The LIFG’s main fundraising vehicle in
Britain was the Sanabel Relief Agency, now disbanded, which
had offices in Manchester, Middlesbrough, Birmingham and
London.
According to the London-based Guardian,
Salman Abedi travelled to Libya as a 16-year-old in 2011 to
join the LIFG and fight alongside his father in the battle to
oust Gadhafi. And less than a week before the Manchester
attack, Abedi was at his parents’ home in Libya.
When in England, the family lived in
Manchester, which is home to some 10,000 Libyans – the largest
such community outside Libya itself.
Many arrived to escape Gadhafi’s brutal
regime and have lived there for decades, a quiet presence in
the city, well woven into Manchester’s fabric. They reside
throughout the city rather than being concentrated in one
neighbourhood.
“People often call it Libya’s second
capital,” Hashem Ben Ghalbon, a Libyan who has lived there
since 1976 after escaping Libya, told the New York Times.
Meanwhile, Libya has been without a central
government since the 2011 civil war and the ongoing chaos
seems to have no end in sight.
A constellation of tribal and regional
militias has emerged, in a quest for power and wealth. They
are fighting for control of major cities, including even the
capital, Tripoli.
As well, there are two competing national
governments. The UN-backed Government of National Accord
(GNA), based in Tripoli, is a fragile compromise which
includes several rival factions.
It was created under the umbrella of the
Presidential Council of Libya. Fayez Mustafa al-Sarraj, the
chair of the Council, is prime minister of the GNA. But he has
little power.
Hoever, the Tobruk-based National Salvation
government, which is controlled by the renegade general
Khalifa Haftar, does not recognize the Tripoli government,
which it says is dominated by extremists.
Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) is the
largest of an estimated 1,700 armed factions operating in the
country.
These groups have carved up the country
into fiefdoms, most aligned with one of the competing
governments. They include the Shura Council of Mujahideen in
Derna, an Islamist militia founded by a former LIFG fighter.
As for the Islamic State in Libya, it was
forced out of strongholds in Derma and Sirte in 2016, and has
held no significant territory since.
On May 26, fierce clashes erupted between
rival militias in Tripoli during Ramadan. Last year, too, the
capital was besieged by fighting at that time.
“This has become normal for us,” Shukri
Salim, a Libyan Airlines employee who was having coffee with
friends in a café and watching a televised soccer match, told
a Washington Post reporter.
No comments:
Post a Comment