Post-Qaddafi Libya slides from crisis to crisis

TRIPOLI: Eight years after the revolt in Libya against Moamer Qaddafi´s authoritarian regime, a modern and democratic state remains a distant dream in a country which has been sliding from crisis to crisis.

While no major celebrations are planned for the anniversary of the uprising which started February 17, 2011 in the thick of the Arab Spring, Libyans profess no great nostalgia for the Qaddafi days. “I cannot regret Qaddafi´s time because what Libya is today is the product of 42 years of systematic destruction,” said Marwan Jalal, a 43-year-old oil industry engineer, referring to the autocrat´s four decades in power.

“Sooner or later, Libyans will find peace but the journey seems long,” he said.

Post-Qaddafi Libya has remained a battleground, both on the terrain and in politics, between a myriad of rival militias and political factions operating with impunity.

“The political and military divides... are deepening and efforts to bring rival constituencies to the table have thus far failed,” said Claudia Gazzini, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.

“There is no quick recipe to solve Libya´s multilayered crisis,” Gazzini said. “Any effort to unite Libya requires an integrated strategy with a political, a security and an economic component complementing each other and working together towards a common objective.”

In the latest emergency, military strongman General Khalifa Haftar has launched a military push in southern Libya which he says is aimed at rooting out “terrorists” and foreign fighters.

The offensive has fuelled new tensions in a country already wracked by violence and torn between rival administrations since the overthrow and killing of dictator Qaddafi. The vacuum has been exploited by unscrupulous people traffickers taking full advantage of the migration crisis.

A power struggle between the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli and a parallel administration backed by Haftar´s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) in the east has left the country´s vast desert south a lawless no-man´s land.