Libyan revolution and the fall of Gaddafi

In February 2011, after the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, protests broke out in Libya and spread from Benghazi in the east. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who had ruled since 1969, answered with force, and the protest became an armed rebellion. On March 17, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973, authorizing all necessary measures to protect civilians, and a NATO-led air campaign began in late March. Rebels formed the National Transitional Council.¹³

Rebel forces took Tripoli in August 2011. On October 20, Gaddafi was captured and killed near his home town of Sirte. Libya held elections in 2012, but the new state could not disarm the militias that had fought him. A second civil war began in 2014, and by the late 2010s the country was split between rival governments in the west and east, with foreign powers backing each side. A ceasefire in 2020 reduced the fighting, and the country has remained divided and without a lasting settlement.¹³⁴

Gaddafi's collapse also released weapons across the Sahel, and the rise of armed groups there, including in Mali in 2012, drew on that flow. Libya's oil, among the largest proven reserves in Africa, became a prize for rival factions, and terminals changed hands several times. Many migrants also used Libya as a route to Europe, and the lack of a central government made the crossings a major political issue in Europe.¹⁴