After Years of Conflict, Libya Struggles for Unity

An African Nation Con­tend­ing with Two Governments

Ten­sions in Libya have risen again with the appoint­ment of a new Pre­mier, Fathi Bashagha, by the Par­lia­ment in Tobruk. Bashagha is now con­tend­ing for the posi­tion with Abdel Hamid Dbeibah, an UN-rec­og­nized leader.

After the announce­ment, Bashagha went to Tripoli air­port to deliv­er his inau­gur­al speech as Libya’s pres­i­dent. There was no short­age of allu­sions to Dbeibah, who was dis­missed by the new pres­i­dent, with no short­age of accu­sa­tions of his irre­spon­si­ble use of Libyan resources, as stat­ed in a Wash­ing­ton Times piece.

How and Why Libya Con­tends with Two Par­al­lel Governments

The coun­try is split in two, with one side led by a new min­is­ter and the oth­er led by a min­is­ter who has no inten­tion of retir­ing.  Despite the fact that Bashagha’s elec­tions are a first step in heal­ing the coun­try’s inter­nal rift, Libya is once again con­trolled by two par­al­lel governments.

The Egypt­ian gov­ern­ment and Khal­i­fa Haf­tar, a major Libyan polit­i­cal fig­ure, have both expressed their sup­port for this new administration.

Bashagha, a for­mer Inte­ri­or Min­is­ter, is the de fac­to head of the Mis­ura­ta mili­tia, which played a crit­i­cal part in the mil­i­tary cam­paign that stopped the takeover of Tripoli by Haf­tar’s Libyan Nation­al Army (LNA) at the start of 2020. He is thought to be par­tic­u­lar­ly con­nect­ed to Turk­ish intel­li­gence agen­cies, which makes him the ide­al guar­an­tee of Ankara’s inter­ests in Libya. In par­tic­u­lar, he was a major mem­ber of the cab­i­net that signed the accord on marine bor­ders. Dur­ing a press con­fer­ence in Istan­bul in Novem­ber, he request­ed Turkey to take a more active role in the devel­op­ment of the North African “coun­try.”

In real­i­ty, lead­ing mem­bers of the Libyan par­lia­ment agreed in Decem­ber to main­tain the via­bil­i­ty of the mar­itime bor­der deal with Turkey. While Turk­ish For­eign Min­is­ter Mevlüt avuşolu said that Haf­tar has request­ed a meet­ing with Pres­i­dent Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It is no sur­prise, though, that no remarks or replies to the dele­git­imiza­tion of Dbeibah, of which the Turks are the prin­ci­pal spon­sors, have arrived in Ankara. 

Mean­while, Dbeibah has the sup­port of the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca and Tripoli’s mili­tias. The assas­si­na­tion attempt on Feb­ru­ary 10th brought this ahead. On the con­trary, Haf­tar and Egypt are open­ly ecsta­t­ic, hav­ing long select­ed Bashagha as the Tro­jan horse to gam­ble on in order to regain con­trol of Tripoli, the Libyan capital. 

UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Anto­nio Guter­res encour­aged “all par­ties to keep Libya’s sta­bil­i­ty as a key pri­or­i­ty.” Guter­res remind­ed “all insti­tu­tions of the prin­ci­pal pur­pose of con­duct­ing elec­tions as soon as fea­si­ble” in a state­ment. The sec­re­tary-gen­er­al’s spokesper­son reit­er­at­ed recent­ly that the UN con­tin­ues to endorse Dbeibah as prime minister. 

Libyans Need to Resolve Past Mistakes 

This is a dif­fer­ent sit­u­a­tion than pre­vi­ous ones, but it is evi­dent that the splin­ter­ing of a coun­try that is attempt­ing to heal pro­found wounds from the recent past will not be easy.

The polit­i­cal cri­sis in Libya is once again a sad chap­ter in the his­to­ry of a state try­ing to be reborn, a state try­ing to find sta­bil­i­ty. The peo­ple would like to have con­fi­dence in their gov­ern­ment.  Libyans would like to work with the gov­ern­ment so that a bal­ance and a new chap­ter in their his­to­ry can be re-established.

But the prob­lem lies in the fact that both polit­i­cal fig­ures who aspire to speak for the peo­ple won’t be able to do so with­out a com­pro­mise. The iden­ti­ty of the Libyan peo­ple seems to be weak­ened by this con­flict of inter­ests, a weak­en­ing that is also due to the coer­cive pow­er that has become prac­ti­cal in every­day life, a pow­er that is often devi­ous and sub­tle, such as the actu­al divi­sion of the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of cit­i­zens by these two governments. 

This sit­u­a­tion, if it con­tin­ues, will cause noth­ing but mis­trust, demo­ti­va­tion, and flight from the country.

Libya is the main port of depar­ture for barges to Europe, so this cri­sis will cre­ate more prob­lems for the region, includ­ing the depar­tures of its cit­i­zens, and the cit­i­zens of neigh­bor­ing states. 

In times of chaos, it is well known that the rate of cor­rup­tion and crime increas­es. This is the biggest risk for the strug­gling nation. Libyans need to resolve cracks in the past, not open them wider and wider.