Libya: Media clampdown amidst a disaster

Misinformation and media restrictions add to the chaos in the flood-stricken city of Derna. Plus, preserving Nigeria’s past in print.

As the residents of the city of Derna count their dead, authorities in eastern Libya expel news crews from the city and evade scrutiny of their role in the disaster.

Libya flood: How the country's divide is hampering humanitarian aid efforts

 

Libya's Red Crescent says more than 11,000 people are now known to have died in floods in the city of Derna. Large parts of the coastal city were swept away after torrential rain caused two dams to burst. The UN said many of the deaths could have been avoided if Libya had a functioning weather agency. There are concerns about disease spreading, with many bodies still lying in the ruins. Some aid and foreign rescue teams have arrived in Libya, but with the country divided and roads washed away, international help is struggling to reach those in need.

Storm Daniel unleashes deadly flooding in Libya

Storm Daniel tore through eastern Libya, erasing entire residential areas. Officials say 2,000 people are feared dead and as many as 5,000 more are missing.

 

Abandoned refugees living on Libya's streets in appalling conditions

 

Libya is the main hub for migrants and refugees hoping to cross from Africa to Europe via the Mediterranean. Thousands of migrants were detained in early October 2021 in a crackdown by the Libyan authorities. But detention centres are dangerously overcrowded with migrants living in terrible conditions and during a recent mass breakout guards shot dead six people.

Untold Chaos: living through Libya's wars – documentary

 

At the end of his US presidency, Barack Obama said his worst mistake was failing to plan for the day after the intervention in Libya. What followed was chaos. Filmed over seven years, this is an observational mosaic, capturing the feeling of a country in the hands of warlords and a proxy war, while a divided political process and a fragile international peace deal loom.  Yet across besieged cities and vast deserts, through ancient languages, diversities and divisions, we glimpse a quest for democracy and a thirst for reconciliation from those who are often unseen and unrepresented

Italian fishermen in Libyan custody

 

Eighteen Sicilian fishermen have been in Libyan custody since September 2020. Their offence: Fishing for coveted red prawns off the coast of Libya. Their desperate families fear that more is at stake than sovereign rights at sea.

UAE implicated in lethal drone strike in Libya

The BBC has uncovered new evidence that a drone operated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) killed 26 unarmed cadets at a military academy in Libya's capital Tripoli in January 2020

Why Russian mercenaries seized control of key oilfield in Libya

Despite losing ground, Moscow sends war planes and Russian mercenaries to Libya. Plus, Lebanon's deadly explosion.

Russian mercenary groups have enabled renegade military commander Khalifa Hafter, who is based in eastern Libya, to blockade the country's oil exports, starving the country of much-needed money.

Moscow's backing of Haftar, a former CIA asset, has increased tensions with the United States. Russian private military contractors are active in 16 African nations. How is the country paying for its overseas wars?

Has Khalifa Haftar's campaign in Libya failed?

Renegade military commander loses last stronghold in western Libya following similar defeats.

Renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar's ambitions in Libya are unravelling quickly.

The 76-year-old launched an offensive 14 months ago to capture the capital, Tripoli, from the United Nations-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).

The GNA's forces say they have regained full control of Tripoli and pushed Haftar's fighters from Tarhuna, their last stronghold in western Libya.

This follows weeks of similar defeats and losses of territory for Haftar's forces along the coast.

Will setback to Khalifa Haftar change the course of Libya's war?

Renegade military commander loses control of important airbase near capital Tripoli.

Khalifa Haftar told the world he is the only man who can bring stability back to Libya.

The renegade military commander launched a military offensive last year to take control of the capital from the UN-recognised government in Tripoli.

But his forces have suffered a series of setbacks in the past month.

Libya Renditions: The CIA, MI6 and Gaddafi's Secret Prisons

How British and US secret services collaborated with the former Libyan regime to detain and torture dissidents.

In 2004, Sami al-Saadi and Abdel-Hakeem Belhaj - two Libyan opponents of the Muammar Gaddafi regime - were abducted en route to the United Kingdom, then repatriated to Libya where they were imprisoned and tortured.

But following the 2011 uprising and the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime, the two men - who were released from detention in 2010 - began to investigate the real story behind their abduction, and the role played by the UK government.

Two years later in 2013, Al Jazeera's Juliana Ruhfus gained exclusive access to the men as they returned to Libya in search of answers.

What’s Happening with the War in Libya?

There’s an intense battle for Libya’s capital Tripoli that’s killed more than 200 civilians and displaced thousands of people. The offensive is being led by a renegade general named Khalifa Haftar who’s fighting militias loyal to the UN-recognised Government of National Accord. But who is Haftar, which countries support him and which world powers back the GNA? Start Here explains what’s behind the fight for Libya and why the international community has struggled to stop it.

What role will Turkey play in Libya?

Turkey says it will increase its military support to the internationally recognised government of Libya if necessary.

Turkey is considering all kinds of military backing for Libya. That includes ground, marine and air support, if necessary.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said he is ready to deploy troops if the internationally recognised government of Libya formally requests help.

The Government of National Accord, or GNA, has been fighting an offensive by rebel forces to unseat Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj since April.

Renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar announced his final push to seize the capital Tripoli earlier this month.

His forces extended to Wednesday a deadline for pro-government forces to withdraw.

Rescue at Sea: Migrants in the Mediterranean

Why are authorities in Italy and Libya trying to stop NGO vessels from rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean sea?

As long as there is war, poverty and insecurity in Africa and the Middle East, migrants and refugees will try and seek a better life in Europe. For many years now, one of the principal transit routes has been the dangerous sea crossing over the Mediterranean between Libya and Italy.

Images of anxious people crammed into small and manifestly unsafe boats run by human traffickers have become sadly familiar around the world, as have the stories of sinkings and drownings that tragically are regularly attendant on these journeys.

As a result, and against a background of hardening anti-migrant sentiment in  Europe, the problem of how to best respond to and control this phenomenon - and reduce the number of fatalities - has become ever more hotly debated.

The Lust for Libya: How a Nation was Torn Apart

The legacy of the life and death of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Torn asunder by competing local, regional and international forces, its survival as a singular nation-state is under threat.

Once Africa's wealthiest country with the continent's largest oil reserves and highest standard of living, Libya, liberated from a dictator's grip, is mired in a violent, internecine conflict that has left many of its people struggling for food, fuel and security.

So how did it come to this?

Libya is split between rival governments and conflicting centres of power - one in the east of the country and one in the west - each backed by militias fighting for their own share of Libya's loot seven years on from the violent overthrow of the Gaddafi regime.

Migrants for sale: Slave trade in Libya (video)

African refugees have long used Libya as gateway to Europe, but many are now facing abuse, exploitation and trafficking.

Libya's UN-backed government says it is investigating allegations that hundreds of African refugees and migrants passing through Libya are being bought and sold in modern-day slave markets.

According to reports, the trade works by preying on the tens of thousands of vulnerable people who risk everything to get to Libya's coast and then across the Mediterranean into Europe - a route that's been described as the deadliest route on earth.

Libya is the main gateway for people attempting to reach Europe by sea, with more than 150,000 people making the crossing in each of the past three years.

The Battle of Misrata

Five years on, Misratans reflect on the siege of their city and how it played a role in the downfall of Gaddafi.

The Libyan revolution started in February 2011. Misrata in northwestern Libya was one of the main strongholds against the then President Muammar Gaddafi, along with the city of Benghazi.

In this film, we meet some of the people who not only witnessed the 13-week battle for the city but took part in some of the fiercest fighting of the civil war, with the minimum of training and experience.     

As in Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria, early 2011 saw public frustration in Libya turn into open protest. It began in the northeastern city of Benghazi and the next day the people of Misrata also came out in numbers.  

Libya peace talks - Can they deliver?

France launches latest attempt to broker peace amid long-standing conflict between two main rival groups.

French President Emmanuel Macron has brought the two main Libyan rival groups together for face-to-face talks. The meeting in Paris is seen as a step towards reconciliation.

The latest attempt follows six years of conflict and chaos since longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown by rebels supported by a French-led NATO air campaign.

Now, Libya has two power centres; the UN-backed government of National Accord headed by Fayez al-Sarraj and the so-called Libyan National Army led by General Khalifa Haftar's forces, which control a large part of eastern Libya and its oil fields.

Libya's Shifting Sands: Derna

A rare look at the fight against ISIL in the eastern Libyan city of Derna in the constant flux of the post-Gaddafi era.

Libya's Shifting Sands is a two-part series offering a rare glimpse into the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in two strategically important cities of Derna and Sirte.

The 2011 Arab Spring saw the fall of heads of government in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. A series of internationally recognised but unstable governments in Tripoli failed to unify the country or revive the economy.

Amid the chaos, weak border controls and a lack of effective government, ISIL started to gain a foothold in the eastern coastal city of Derna during 2012; and then in Sirte during 2014.

Why was Saif al-Islam Gaddafi released from prison?

The son of Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi has been released from prison.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has been freed under a new amnesty law. 

His release was approved by one of Libya's administrations based in the eastern city of Tobruk.

A court in Tripoli had sentenced him to death in 2015 for war crimes and suppression of demonstrations during the 2011 uprising.

The son of Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam is also wanted by the International Criminal Court.

So what will this mean for Libya as it struggles with violence and competing governments?