Libya: turmoil and civil war Like so much else in Libya, Tripoli’s fledgling stock exchange came to a standstill after the country plunged into civil war in the summer of 2014. But even before, the idea of investing in Libyan stocks was always a hard sell, given the turmoil that preceded and followed the ousting of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. Libya had seen years of isolation after UN-imposed sanctions in 1992 for an attack on a Pan Am airliner that killed 259 people in the air and 11 on the ground in Lockerbie, a Scottish village. Sanctions were eased after…
Mary Fitzgerald
Libya: legacy, liberation and labour Past and present conspire against a prosperous future By Mary Fitzgerald Oil-rich Libya faces an array of daunting challenges in dealing with the legacies of Muammar Qaddafi’s 42 years in power, not least the dysfunctional labour sector he left behind. Add to this the damage done to the country’s economic infrastructure during the revolution that ousted Mr Qaddafi in 2011, and the impact of the civil war that has raged for nearly a year, and the prognosis looks very grim. The deep-rooted labour challenges that bedevil Libya are the fruits of Mr Qaddafi’s idiosyncratic rule,…
Libya’s draft constitution Can the drafters of the country’s first post-Qaddafi charter rescue Libya from itself? As Libya tips further into chaos, the continuing work of its Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) represents one of the last hopes of this country’s shattered transition. Elected in a national ballot in February 2014, the assembly is tasked with writing Libya’s first post-Qaddafi constitution and the country’s first since 1951. But with Libya showing many signs of falling into what might be a protracted civil war, the CDA has taken on an even greater significance. Most of Libya’s fledgling state institutions have been torn…
Libya’s militias Political, geographic and tribal allegiances divide the country Libya is a divided country with two prime ministers, two parliaments and two armies that rule from opposite ends of the country. Along with the patchwork of militias that emerged during and after the 2011 uprising, the uniformed armed forces that defected that year have coalesced into two broad camps loyal to two rival governments. One, the internationally recognised product of a parliament elected in a national ballot in June, is based in the eastern town of Baida. There it is supported by a breakaway faction of the Libyan army…
