Frank Baker

Here’s how Britain can solve Libya’s woes

Image from the Libyan Civil War in March 2011. Photo by John Moore/Getty Images

The Libyan Civil War of 2011, culminating in the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, was the bloodiest of the uprisings across North Africa forming part of the so-called Arab Spring. Western leaders, including David Cameron, backed the rebel forces for a myriad of reasons, not least in response to the brutality shown by Gaddafi in bombing his own people. But there was also an expectation that a Libya free of Gaddafi would be a more prosperous and peaceful country. The reality has been very different.

For a decade now, Libya has been beset by chaos. A chaos that has seen the country riven by regional rivalries, divided by political figures from east and west. A chaos that Isis took full advantage of to establish themselves in the centre of the country, before western – mainly UK – intervention helped drive them out. A chaos that some unscrupulous politicians have taken advantage of to enrich themselves vastly, at the expense of the Libyan people. A chaos which has seen thousands of migrants leave the shores of Libya to risk crossing the Mediterranean to get to southern Europe.

The international community – largely through the United Nations – has not stood entirely idly by. When I was in Libya from 2018-2019, where I served as UK ambassador during that period, the then special representative of the UN Secretary General, Ghassan Salame, worked tirelessly to bring the bickering factions together. In the spring of 2019 he came within days of convening a National Conference which would have brought together all political parties, tribes and civil society to agree on a unified way forward. Ultimately his efforts were undermined by a resumption of fighting between east and west encouraged by various external parties.

Eighteen months later the UN tried again. That process – known as the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum – led to an agreement being reached in Geneva in March 2021 to set up an interim government under Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, with the objective of leading Libya into national elections which were to be held on 24 December last year.

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