Tippingpoint

A fractured Libya provides a base for ISIS that threatens to destabilize North Africa and beyond

A mafia-like criminal order inspired by a totalitarian ideology threatens North Africa and the Sahel, with Libya now as its centerpiece.

As this radical, obscurantist and brutal form of Islam spreads and displaces traditional Islam in Libya, the emergence of the Benghazi Defense Brigades (BDB), formed in June 2016 to oppose the Libyan national army, has plunged the country into further chaos. The BDB is locked in conflict with the Libyan army led by Major General Khalifa Haftar, who controls important parts of eastern Libya and who is still reluctant to accept the Un-backed Libyan National Unity Government led by Fayez Al-sarraj. Both men, however, are intent on fighting the scourge of radical Islamism in the country, but underestimated the resilience of Islamic militancy.

While Sarraj has started an offensive against the radical militant group ISIS in the city of Sirte, some 450 km east of Tripoli, and tried to get all the Libyan military unified (including the forces of Haftar), BDB has condemned such a plan and has also not concealed its connection to the former Libyan Mufti Sadek al-ghariani, who had called on his militia to campaign against the Libyan army. If the military conflict between these four forces continues, the mission of the Libyan National Unity Government would be compromised, and the objective of unifying Libya under one legal power would be impossible to achieve.

The stark realities behind the events in Libya that have led to this volatile state of affairs were exposed by correspondence of former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, declassified on December 31, 2015. The correspondence revealed that in 2011, Muammar Gaddafi had accumulated 143 tons of gold and 143 tons of silver, which he wanted to use to establish a new single currency for Africa and provide French-speaking African countries with “an alternative to the French franc (CFA).” “This gold was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to be used to establish a pan-african currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar,” reads the email from Clinton. These reserves amounted to nearly $7 billion. This information sheds new light on the reasons behind NATO military intervention in Libya. The West and its Arab allies did not realize they were opening a Pandora’s box by launching a military intervention against the Libyan regime.