Issue Brief on “Libyan Civil War: A Growing Inferno”

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More than six years after Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown, chaos still reigns in Libya. Fighting erupted between rival militias in Tripoli in the last week of May 2017, wrecking a period of somewhat calm that had lasted since March 2017. Sideways, Egyptian air force planes continue to strike camps near Derna, in East Libya. The air strikes are a rejoinder to a deadly attack against Christians in Egypt that took place on May 28. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi claims that the area hosts ‘terrorist camps’.[1]

Indeed, the turmoil in Libya has allowed the Islamic State (IS) to gain a foothold in the country. IS has taken control of the area in and around the city of Sirte, the birthplace of Gaddafi. It is feared that this could provide a safe haven for jihadists to train, fund and plan attacks in North Africa and across the Mediterranean.

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