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A New Cuppa Tea in Tripoli

Actress Bernadette Nason takes tales of a year in Libya and brews a potent memoir

By Robert Faires

Bernadette Nason knew her mid-Eighties year of living as an English expat in Libya held a rich vein of crowd-pleasing yarns. Read More

Doubling Down on Africa’s Trafficking Problem

By Liviya David

Across Africa, trafficking is on the rise. Boko Haram’s kidnapping and sale of some of the 276 Chibok schoolgirls into slavery, Guinea-Bissau regressing into a “narco state,” and rebels loyal to the Mozambican National Resistance using poaching to sustain their fledgling movement are several examples in recent memory. Read More

Europe Finances Libyan Militias to Curb Migration

By empowering Libyan warlords and constraining rescue missions, migrant numbers to Italy have halved. But at what cost?

By Leanne Tory-Murphy

On 10 May, in the early European summer, a rescue vessel patrolling the Mediterranean Sea came across a familiar sight: a wooden boat overcrowded with migrants. It headed over to give out life vests when a Libyan warship passed them at high speed before seizing the passengers. Read More

Why Election in Libya is More Likely to Lead to Instability than Peace

The Case Against Elections in Libya

By Emadeddin Zahri Muntasser

Normally, a call for elections is a sign of a vibrant democracy. In Libya, however, the current rush to hold a vote within a few months from now—a proposal that has been advanced by everyone from United Arab Emirates-backed warlords to the United Nations—will condemn the Libyan people to a future of apartheid and instability. Read More

Runaway Husbands

By Rizq Faraj Rizq

When she was 35, Mabrooka Hussein feared she might never get married. “So I decided to venture into a mixed marriage, despite the warnings I received,” she recalled. Read More

Coffee in Tripoli – Tea in Benghazi

By Peter Millett

I had coffee the other day in Algeria Square in central Tripoli.  I was passing by and was invited to sit with a group of men who kindly offered me some local coffee. It was a good opportunity to escape from the heat of the sun and hear their thoughts. Read More

Can Libya’s Warring Strongmen Come Together?

By Vitaly Naumkin

Reviewing the latest Paris summit, it seems that a new glimmer of hope shines around the possibility of settling the conflict between Libya’s strongmen, Libyan National Army LNA Chief Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who controls two thirds of the country, including oil-rich territory, and the head of the UN-backed Government of National Accord Fayez al-Sarraj. Read More

Haftar’s forces shoot citizens from Derna

Sources from the city of Derna, eastern side of Libya, said, on Wednesday, that armed elements affiliated with the forces of the Dignity Operation that led by General Khalifa Haftar had shot citizens from Derna on the way to Martouba, eastern Derna. Read More