War is Raging in Libya

While the rest of the world is rightfully worrying about COVID-19, Libya is in the midst of it’s second civil war since the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.

The 2011 uprising was a cause for celebration worldwide as an indefensible, brutal despot was dethroned.

Many columnists precipitated democratic elections and a new wave of prosperity and freedom and the given reason for this expectation, even though it flies in the face of history, was the assistance the country would receive by First World Countries.

Depressingly though, as with the Middle East, those countries eventually decided that the expected benefit was outweighing the current costs which has left another country fighting amongst itself for it’s vast stores of oil.

The war is being fought between two main forces; the Government of National Accord (GNA), led by Fayez al-Sarraj opposing Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

While the GNA is recognised by the UN Libya’s legitimate government, it controls only approximately 5–10% of the country, but crucially controlling the capital of Tripoli.

The war has been raging for almost 6 years and there is currently no end in sight.

UN chief António Guterres has recently labelled the conflict a proxy war due to the participation of countries such as Turkey, Russia & the UAE.

While the peace process is ongoing, multiple ceasefires have been promised and broken and recently, on the 2nd of March, the UN’s Special Representative who was tasked to try to find a peace agreement between the two parties, Ghassan Salamé has resigned, citing failing health.

This has unfortunately become another example of how delicate a new country’s position is and how explosive it can be if mishandled.