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Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west and Tunisia to the northwest. The sovereign state is made of three historical regions: Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. With an area of almost 700,000 square miles, Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa and is the 16th largest country in the world. Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world. The largest city and capital, Tripoli, is located in western Libya and contains over three million of Libya's seven million people.
Misrata is a city in the Misrata District in northwestern Libya, situated 187 km (116 mi) to the east of Tripoli and 825 km (513 mi) west of Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast near Cape Misrata. With a population of about 881,000, it is the third-largest city in Libya, after Tripoli and Benghazi. It is the capital city of the Misrata District and has been called the trade capital of Libya. The harbor is at Qasr Ahmad.
Mohammed El Senussi is the son of Crown Prince Hasan as-Senussi of Libya, and of Crown Princess Fawzia bint Tahir Bakeer. Born in Tripoli, he is considered by Libyan royalists to be the legitimate heir to the Senussi Crown of Libya.
During the early stages of the Libyan Civil War of 2011, the Gaddafi regime was still in power: but there was widespread withdrawal of support from that regime by influential persons and organisations within the country. Among those who no longer supported the regime, the main concern they expressed was what they regarded as its use of excessive force against peaceful protestors. There were many resignations by ministers of the governing council and other senior officials, diplomats posted abroad, and senior military officers. Islamic clerics, tribal leaders, and members of the former royal family expressed their opposition, while the two leading Libyan oil companies also withdrew support for the regime.
Arab-Berbers are an ethnolinguistic group of the Maghreb, a vast region of North Africa in the western part of the Arab world along the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Arab-Berbers are people of mixed Arab and Berber origin, most of whom speak a variant of Maghrebi Arabic as their native language, although about 16 to 25 million speak various Berber languages. Many Arab-Berbers identify primarily as Arab and secondarily as Berber.
The General National Congress or General National Council was the legislative authority of Libya for two years following the end of the First Libyan Civil War. It was elected by popular vote on 7 July 2012, and took power from the National Transitional Council on 8 August.
Al Sadiq Abd-Alrahman Ali Al Ghariani has been the Grand Mufti of Libya since 2012. He is a controversial Muslim imam of the Maliki school of thought. Academically he is a seated professor in the College of Sharia in the University of Tripoli since 1969 and distinguished contributor the Maliki school of thought with his numerous publications.
The National Salvation Government was a government body formed by politicians from the General National Congress's blocs that lost the June 2014 elections in Libya. The NSG was led by Khalifa al-Ghawil. The term Libya Dawn Coalition was used to refer to the armed groups and/or the wider political movement supporting the NSG. The NSG was one of the major sides in the ongoing Second Libyan Civil War from its formation August 2014 until its dissolution in April 2016.
In October 2014, the self-declared Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) took control of numerous government buildings, security vehicles and local landmarks in the Eastern Libyan coastal city of Derna. Although some media outlets reported the control as being absolute, rival groups like the al-Qaeda-affiliated Abu Salim Martyrs Brigade continued to control parts of the city. Clashes erupted between ISIL and an alliance of Islamist groups in June 2015, with ISIL retreating from Derna to outlying suburbs the following month. However, clashes continued between the Islamist alliance and the Tobruk-based government forces.
The Libyan Crisis refers to the current humanitarian crisis and political-military instability occurring in Libya, beginning with the Arab Spring protests of 2011, which led to a civil war, foreign military intervention, and the ousting and death of Muammar Gaddafi. The civil war's aftermath and proliferation of armed groups led to violence and instability across the country, which erupted into renewed civil war in 2014. The crisis in Libya has resulted in tens of thousands of casualties since the onset of violence in early 2011. During both civil wars, the output of Libya's economically crucial oil industry collapsed to a small fraction of its usual level, with most facilities blockaded or damaged by rival groups, despite having the largest oil reserves of any African country. U.S. President Barack Obama stated on 11 April 2016 that not preparing for a post-Gaddafi Libya was probably the "worst mistake" of his presidency. On October 23, 2020, parties signed a permanent ceasefire.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is a militant Islamist group active in Libya under three branches: Fezzan Province in the desert south, Cyrenaica Province in the east, and Tripolitania Province in the west. The branches were formed on 13 November 2014, following pledges of allegiance to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by militants in Libya.
The Government of National Accord was an interim government for Libya that was formed under the terms of the Libyan Political Agreement, a United Nations–led initiative, signed on 17 December 2015. The agreement was unanimously endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, which welcomed the formation of a Presidency Council for Libya and recognized the Government of National Accord as the sole legitimate executive authority in Libya. On 31 December 2015, Chairman of the Libyan House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh Issa declared his support for the Libyan Political Agreement. The General National Congress has criticized the GNA on multiple fronts as biased in favor of its rival parliament the House of Representatives.
The Battle of Sirte (2016) started in the spring of 2016, in the Sirte District in Libya, between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the loyalist forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA) backed by the United States. ISIL forces had captured Sirte one year earlier, during the previous battle. The conflict for Sirte was described as ISIL's "last stand" in Libya.
The Gulf of Sidra Offensive was an offensive of the Second Libyan Civil War. It was launched by the Benghazi Defense Brigades on 3 March 2017, and initially resulted in them taking control of a strip of coastal territory between the towns of Nofaliya and Ras Lanuf, which was then handed over to the Government of National Accord. A number of significant oil ports are located in this area, sometimes referred to as the Oil Crescent. The loss of the Oil Crescent was perceived by analysts as a major blow to the power of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
The Battle of Derna was a military campaign by the Libyan National Army to recapture the city of Derna from the Shura Council of Mujahideen in Derna, which lasted from 7 May 2018 until 12 February 2019. The majority of military operations concluded by 28 June 2018, with the Libyan National Army declaring control of the entire city on that day, despite continued clashes in the old city. During the early stages of the battle, the Shura Council was dissolved and replaced with the Derna Protection Force, which continued operations after the LNA declared victory in June 2018, before surrendering themselves at the end of the battle.
The International Criminal Court investigation in Libya or the Situation in Libya is an investigation started in March 2011 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into war crimes and crimes against humanity claimed to have occurred in Libya since 15 February 2011. The initial context of the investigation was the 2011 Libyan Civil War and the time frame of the investigation continued to include the 2019 Western Libya offensive.
References
- ↑ "List of Government Universities at the Libyan Centre for Quality Assurance and Accreditation". Archived from the original on 2016-12-05. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
- ↑ "University history via its own site". Archived from the original on 2017-05-01. Retrieved 2017-05-03.
