THERE IS ANOTHER REVOLUTION OF SORTS HAPPENING IN LIBYA

Tunisia.

Egypt.

Libya. Then Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Algeria, Iraq and Jordan.

World watched with speculation, scepticism and hope, all the while people from the Arab nations poured out on the streets in protest. In the aftermath of the uprisings, four countries ousted their Heads of state. One is still fighting a civil war. And several others had constitutional changes.

But let’s focus on Libya. Libya is a North African country with rich oil reserves.  For almost 40 years it had been ruled with an iron fist of Gadhafi. But in 2011 everything changed. People fed up with dictatorship poured out on the streets and began protesting. As the protest swelled in numbers Libyan forces began gunning people down indiscriminately, this changed a peaceful demonstration to a violent riot that eventually led to a civil war in Libya.

Among all the factions in Libya fighting the oppressive regime, NTC (National Transitional Council) became the most prominent and started taking charge of the situation. After months of fighting and foreign intervention, the Gadhafi regime was toppled and a new government was installed.

Here is where things began to change.

When national elections were held the national governing body GNC (General National Congress) was formed and the Justice and Construction party came to power, which is part of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is alleged that they began funding several hard-line Islamist militants to start taking control over Libya. Several factions and tribes also began actively pledging allegiance to each other, thus a chain of reaction happened.  Eventually the whole of Libya came back into conflict, this time along more religious lines. 

In this state of chaos, a certain General Khalifa Haftar stepped in.

The general urged all Libyans to fight the Islamist forces. Several units of the Libyan Army responded to his call and rallied behind him. The forces under Haftar began slowly retaking the cities back from the Islamist forces. But at the same time Ansar-al sharia began Operation Libyan Dawn which began getting back the cities it had lost.

In this game of back and forth, the Islamic State stepped in. Several members of Ansar Al-Sharia are said to have moved on to the IS and its only a matter of time before which it pledges itself to the organisation. This is a very alarming development because it shows IS’s capabilities to expand to area far away from its own.

Here is the very crucial juncture where the international community really need to act. It needs to rally behind the General or any other moderate faction and help stabilize the nation. Because the conditions that are developing in Libya are eerily similar to the one that was in Syria.

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