Libyan town clings to memory of Gaddafi 10 years on

A portrait of Muammar Gaddafi marks the entrance of Bani Walid: 10 chaotic years since the Libyan dictator’s death, residents of the desert town still hanker for his rule.

“Muammar Gaddafi is a symbol,” said resident Mohamed Dairi, in his fifties. “We will always support him.”

Unfinished concrete buildings litter the town of 100 000 people on the edge of the Sahara, many scarred by a decade of conflict.

Rebels killed Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte on 20 October 2011, months into the Nato-backed rebellion that ended his four-decade rule.

Residents of Bani Walid, a stronghold of the Warfala — the country’s biggest ethnic group and a key pillar of Gaddafi’s rule — had backed him to the bitter end. Many fighters from the town were killed, with more dying in further battles when rival militia groups attacked.

Today, a dusty wind whips through the town, where a decommissioned tank overlooks a dried-up fountain and a board bearing pictures of “martyrs” hangs over mortar shells.

Bani Walid lies in an oasis 170km from Tripoli. On a once-imposing government building, the green flags of Gaddafi’s era flutter. The red, black and green flag of the pregaddafi years, adopted again by rebels in 2011, is nowhere. Residents are open about their nostalgia.

“Before 2011, Libyans were the masters of their destiny. Since then we’ve seen 10 years of injustice, bombing, killing and kidnapping,” said Mohammad Abi Hamra, wearing a wristwatch bearing the leader’s face. “Revolution is meant to bring change for the better. But what has happened since 2011 hasn’t been a real revolution, it has been a conspiracy against Libya.”

The 10th anniversary of Gaddafi’s death comes as the country prepares for elections, part of a Un-led peace process. But many in Bani Walid are sceptical, seeing more hope in the old regime than in the country’s current political forces.

“The reason this town is so attached to the former regime is that the 2011 revolution brought nothing but wars, catastrophe, division of the country and violations of its sovereignty,” said engineer Fethi alahmar. “We cling to the past because back then we had security.”

Journalist Ahmed Abouhriba agreed. “Gaddafi wasn’t a dictator, but the guardian of the citizenry,” he said. For him, the state of the economy — wracked by inflation and conflict — is more evidence that life was better under Gaddafi. He said Bani Walid’s attachment to the former leader stretches to Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-islam, who in July, in a rare interview with the New York Times suggested he may run for president.

“How can we support new political parties that have built nothing since 2011?” Abouhriba asked. —

‘Failure to bring to justice those suspected to be responsible for the torture and killings of #ENDSARS protesters on 20 October 2020 is yet another indication that Nigerian authorities lack the political will to ensure accountability for these atrocities, and end police brutality.’ — Director of Amnesty International Nigeria Osai Ojigho speaking on the one year anniversary of #ENDSARS