LIBYA FACES SERIOUS SECURITY PROBLEMS (UPDATED 12TH FEBRUARY 2013)
On Wednesday 8th August 2012 Libya’s new democratic Congress began to assume power. Late on Thursday it elected Mohammed Youssef Magariaf as its President. Magariaf won 113 votes from the 200-strong Congress against the independent candidate Ali Zidan who gained 85 votes.
President Magariaf is the leader of the National Front party – known as the National Front for the Salvation of Libya during the Gaddafi era. He is an economist and former Libyan ambassador to India who was born in Benghazi in 1940. His election is seen as an important boon for Benghazi where many feared they were being side-lined.
President Magariaf will lead Congress which now has less than 30 days to select a prime minister, begin the process of drafting a new constitution and organising parliamentary elections. Observers believe that Magariaf’s friend Mustafa Abushagur is the most likely candidate the prime minister’s job but he was also born in Benghazi. This may incline Tripolitanians to oppose his candidature in favour of one of their own. The outcome will be interesting and regional politics will play a major part.
Amongst his numerous problems Magariaf will have been distressed to hear that, almost immediately after he was elected, unidentified gunmen in Benghazi shot dead a Libyan army general and high-ranking defence ministry official, Mohamed Hadia al-Feitouri. Al-Feitouri was one of Gadaffi’s army generals who defected early to the 17th February movement. He is one of a number of ex Gaddafi men who have been assassinated in Benghazi by unknown killers.
There are other disturbing straws in the wind. Haji Fornani reported on 7th August that Zuwayya tribesmen stopped oil production in three oilfields in eastern Libya in protest against armed clashes in south eastern city of Kufra.
The nomadic Zuwayya tribe claims a significant area of Libya from Ajadabia in the north to the oasis of Kufra, which they captured from the Tebu in 1840. Kufra now has of around 44,000 inhabitants and is some 2,000 kilometres from Tripoli.
Violence in Kufra between Arab Zuwayya tribesman and the Tebu minority has been going on for some time. The Tebu are a race of desert warriors living in the eastern and central Sahara Desert. The majority of the estimated population of 215,000 can be found in the Tibesti Mountains on the Libyan-Chad border. Their harsh environment, extreme poverty, and remote location make them a very tough people, who have often had violent clashes with the neighbouring tribes. About 2,600 them now live in Kufra.
Fighting in Kufra first erupted as a smuggling turf war between the well-armed Tebu community and the majority Zuwayya tribe, but then developed into a war of attrition between the Tebus and the Libya army sent in by the authorities to restore law and order.
In their attempts to force the government to take decisive action against the Tebu in Kufra the Zuwayya are also threatening to stop the water supply from the sub-Saharan Aquifer which is transported in huge cement pipes from near Kufra to the populous coastal cities of Libya. The pipelines and wells are known as the ‘Great Man-made River’. Even though the source of the water is in a Tebu controlled area; the pipeline passes through Zuwayya territory, which means they can turn off the pumps and prevent the water heading north.
John Oakes – 14th August 2012
Update 6th January 2013
At last some effort is being made to absorb the militias into the police. See:
http://libya.tv/en/thousands-of-men-sign-up-for-police-training/
Update 13th January 2013
Disturbing news of one of Tripoli’s militias
Update 28th January 2013
Misurata still appears to be in the hands of militias:
http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/01/28/misrata-clamps-down-weapons-ban/
Update 12th January 2013
An attempt to make militiamen into real soldiers;
http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/01/24/trying-to-make-thuwars-true-soldiers/
Update 30th March 2013
A good clear analysis of the security situation in Libya today:
http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/03/01/analysis-the-security-conundrum/
Update 3 July 2013
Militia begin to join the Libyan Army
http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/07/01/ghariyan-base-passes-into-army-control/
However, armed militia are still causing trouble in Tripoli
http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/07/02/interior-ministry-besieged-by-hundreds-of-armed-men/
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