Gunfire filled the streets of Tripoli, Libya, after a top militia leader was assassinated in what has been an ongoing power struggle for control of the country.
According to Associated Press, Libyan officials said at least six other people were killed. Clashes ripped through Tripoli’s southern neighborhood of Abu Salim the evening of May 12, and lasted into the next morning, officials said.
A senior government and health official told AP that the fighting had sparked from the killing of Abdel-Ghani al-Kikli, commander of the Stabilization Support Authority (SSA) and a major figure, by a rival militia. For over a decade, Libya has been wracked in chaos and confusion.
Analysts and observers say there are historical circumstances to the havoc that goes back to 2011 when Libya was attacked by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces, led by the U.S.
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“We should see it as a total disaster as far as U.S. imperialism is concerned,” said Abayomi Azikiwe, political commentator and editor of Pan-African Newswire. “They have, in essence, destroyed what was at one point the most prosperous country in Africa, and they deliberately destroyed it,” he said.
Mr. Azikiwe told The Final Call that America led the charge in 2011 under President Barack Obama and the then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The invasion resulted in the killing of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, 30,000 or more Libyans, and years of destabilization.
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| Smoke fills the sky near the site of clashes between heavily armed militias in Tripoli, Libya, May 14. Photos: AP Photo/Albert Arhó |
“Since then, they have not been able to create a unified government. You have two different centers of power, even three, if you include what’s going on in the southern part of the country,” he explained.
The divide is mainly between the United Nations-recognized government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in the west and a rival eastern government aligned with military commander Khalifa Haftar.
Along with that, there are numerous other militias that operate independently. These groups often control specific areas, towns, or strategic assets like oil facilities. The exact number of militias fluctuates due to the fluid nature of alliances.
Since the U.S. and NATO triggered the power vacuum left in Libya, foreign powers, including Türkiye, Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, filled the void and are backing opposing sides in the ongoing power struggle.
“These are the contradictions that are going on right now, and I think that a lot of people are confused about the whole situation there,” said Mr. Azikiwe.
“It’s a very complicated situation, but at the same time, it all stems from the NATO, Pentagon, CIA destabilization of Libya over a period of about eight months during 2011,” he reasoned.
“Unfortunately, it has created a very tragic situation over the last 14 years,” said Mr. Azikiwe.
On May 13, Prime Minister Dbeibah announced a “military operation” had reportedly quelled the violence and asserted the government’s authority.
“What was accomplished today shows that official institutions are capable of protecting the homeland and preserving the dignity of its citizens,” he wrote on X, praising the armed forces’ role, reported Al Jazeera.
The incursion of 2011 spurned a broader regional crisis, including violent extremist aggression across the Sahel region. America and other Western powers’ complicity is the root cause of the destabilization of Libya.
The aftermath left Africa vulnerable to extremist-driven insurgencies unleashed by the U.S./ NATO destruction of Colonel Gadhafi, whose strong leadership kept them in check.
At the time, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, warned that the dire consequences of their actions would be mayhem and conflict in Africa, which is now being witnessed years later.
“Muammar Gadhafi, no matter what the world thought of him, was moving his country and Africa forward. Libya had, as a nation, no debt … How could this leader, with a philosophy that was not liked by the Western powers, guide a nation to be absolutely debt free, yet, building the economy of that nation;
And at the same time, helping Africa to come up out of the ashes of colonialism and neocolonialism?” Minister Farrakhan said in Part 34 of his 58-week 2013 lecture series, The Time and What Must Be Done.”
“Gadhafi was overthrown. But in overthrowing him, America did not count on Islamic forces coming up that America had no control over! So now, Libya is a lawless country that is in ruin! And this has brought “blowback” to America that America did not expect; so America lost an ambassador, and America lost Americans in the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Benghazi,” Minister Farrakhan stated.
Bloodshed gripping the desert Sahel of northern and western Africa and other parts could be examined in the context of the geostrategic importance of Africa for Western nations and the struggle to remain relevant powers in this century and beyond.
“The U.S. empowered these so-called jihadist groups during 2011. They were not able to seize power on the ground,” said Mr. Azikiwe.
The UN Security Council engineered resolutions that provided them “illegal cover” for implementing a no-fly zone, “which is really a license to bomb indiscriminately, which is what happened,” explained Mr. Azikiwe.
Areas in the eastern part of Libya were bombed, and this empowered the militia groups to take control of various cities, villages, and the oil wealth in the country. This is the result of U.S. imperialist intrigue and involvement, which is continuing.
On the recent firefight in Tripoli, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) expressed concern over the security situation in Tripoli as fighting intensified in high-density civilian districts. “Attacks on civilians and civilian objects may amount to war crimes,” said UNSMIL in a statement.
Established by the UN in 2011, UNSMIL facilitates the current “Libyan Political Dialogue Forum”—a special civilian-led mission focused on political mediation, institution-building, human rights, and the rule of law. The forum was launched in 2020 to supposedly address Libya’s protracted political crisis and move it toward national elections.
But the UN and the international community are culpable in the current crisis in Libya.
“What we are witnessing today in Tripoli and the broader western region is a direct consequence of the international community’s policy of managing the conflict rather than addressing its root causes,” said Ahmed Zahir, a Libyan academic in social policy and geopolitics on the X platform. “The crisis has been frozen, not resolved,” he said.
Mr. Zahir contends that the international community, and UNSMIL specifically, chose to accommodate the status quo instead of confronting it with a unified national project that tackles the core issues: legitimacy, the distribution of power and wealth, and the construction of a unified military institution.
Repeated calls for “de-escalation” and “dialogue,” without guarantees or structural reforms to the political and security landscape, merely recycles the crisis rather than resolving it, he argues.
“Your political choices, your silence in the face of armed group violations, and your fragmented approach to the question of legitimacy have all contributed to this outcome,” Mr. Zahir posted, directing his criticism at the UN and other international bodies. Meanwhile, after a decade and a half, Libya is still in a state of uncertainty.
Continuing down this path will only lead to further violence and instability.
“It will not build a state—it will entrench chaos, benefiting only armed actors and regional or international stakeholders seeking to exploit Libya’s fragmentation,” said Mr. Zahir.
