By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans

''I am an international leader, the dean of the Arab rulers, the King of Kings of Africa and the imam of Muslims, and my international status does not allow me to descend to a lower level.'' (By Muammar Gaddafi)

 

The conclusion of the Libyan Revolution in 2011 led Libyans on a worldwide frenzy in search of the billions Muammar Gaddafi salted away during his 42-year long reign and the luxurious life style he was able to afford with it. Some 40% of Libya's population of six million lived below the poverty line during Gaddafi's reign with little to no access to affordable health care despite the fact that Libya has the most abundant oil reserves in Africa. [1] When Libyans could finally catch a glimp inside of the palaces owned by the Gaddafi family, the main thing that stood out was not the abundant luxury one perhaps expected, but rather their poor interior design styles. Whether it was the horrendous looking supercar wall murals encountered in one of the homes of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi or a huge stone water fountain placed in the middle of a hallway in one of Gaddafi's family resorts, money clearly doesn't equal style.

"All of the great prophets of modern times have come from the desert and were uneducated: Mohammed, Jesus and myself." (By Muammar Gaddafi)

Rumours of organised pro-Gaddafi resistance have persisted since the end of the First Libyan Civil War in late 2011. With the exception of a number of attacks and car bombings in 2012 to 2014, an organised resistance movement never truly materialised however. Instead, the second son of the late Libyan leader Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is seeking to regain his father's power through political means, and in November 2021 attempted to register as a candidate in the 2021 Libyan presidential election but was rejected. [1] This decision was overturned less than a month later, reinstating him as a presidential candidate for the elections that are now scheduled to take place at some point in 2023. [2]

By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans in collaboration with MENA_Conflict and COIN_TR

Forces loyal to Libya's internationally-recognised government (GNA) captured the city of Tarhuna on the 5th of June 2020, marking the official end of the Libyan National Army's (LNA) 14-month long offensive that aimed to capture the Libyan capital of Tripoli. Tarhuna, located some sixty kilometers south-west from Tripoli's city centre, was the last stronghold of Haftar in northwestern Libya, and by the virtue of its role as a giant supply depot for the LNA also the most important one. 

 

Already shortly after Tarhuna's capture by the GNA it became evident what years of occupation had meant for the city's residents. Under the control of the Kaniyat militia since April 2015, which pledged allegiance to Khalifa Haftar's LNA in April 2019, its men imposed a regime of terror on the local population. Since the Kaniyat militia first took over the city in 2015, local residents reported a total of 338 missing persons cases, the vast majority of which in the period between April 2019 to June 2020. [1] [2] The fate of many of these persons was elucidated after the discovery of some 30 mass graves in and around Tarhuna, including several with the remains of women and children in them. [1] Tragically, new mass graves continue to be found to this day. [3]

By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans

 

Al-Watiya. An airbase few had ever heard of until it became a symbol in the fight of the internationally-recognised government of Libya (GNA) against Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) that seeks to overthrow it. While its capture on the 18th of May 2020 temporarily managed to put the spotlight on the severely underreported Libyan conflict, not the least because of the destruction and capture of two Russian Pantsir-S1 missile systems supplied by the UAE, the full implications of the capture of al-Watiya have gone mostly unnoticed.

 

''[Abraham] Lincoln was a man who created himself from nothing without any help from outside or other people. I see certain similarities between him and me.'' (By Muammar Gaddafi)

 

An article covering trains on Oryx Blog? Yes, you're not mistaken. We know what you are thinking: Where are the tanks, aircraft or ships? But actually, trains are kind of interesting – or some of them at least. Take Japan's Chūō Shinkansen for example, which holds the train world speed record of 603 km/h. Or the Krajina Express, an improvised armoured train used by the Krajina Serb army during the 1990s that looked like a veritable battle fortress. Still not convinced? Then how about Gaddafi's personal Italian high-speed train that's technically still owned by Denmark?

The Libyan Civil War has had a devastating impact on the country's civilian aviation sector, and its two giant An-124 cargo aircraft have not eluded their fair share of suffering. Libya's aviation industry came to a near standstill during the 2011 revolution, and even after the cessation of hostilities it took Libyan airline companies anywhere from months up to a year to restart their operations, while some never flew again. Those that did in doing so expressed their renewed confidence for the future, but insecurity and political turmoil in the wake of the civil war ultimately brought an end to any optimism, and soon the Libyan aviation industry was fighting for its very survival.

 

As the civil war ravaging Libya continued with no prospect of relative stability in sight, the threat of extinction loomed large over the An-124s. At a time when the single aircraft that was still present in Libya was dodging artillery fire left and right, the other An-124 was facing the possibility of being auctioned off by Ukraine in 2017 if the Libyan government failed to pay the $1.2 million it owed to Antonov for storage and routine maintenance of the aircraft since 2009 at the Antonov facility in Kiev.