LIBYA – SOMALIA AT THE GATES

Open Access

Abstract

Since the collapse of the Gaddafi regime and the end of NATO-led Operation Unified Protector, the security situation in Libya has deteriorated significantly. Lacking comprehensive post-conflict stabilisation and state-building, the country has become a de facto failed state which made the rise of different Jihadists groups possible. In comparison with the history of al-Shabaab on the Horn of Africa, it seems that the country is on a good way to become a new Somalia. This analysis examines which similarities can be discovered in the two crises. It will not explore the conflict in Somalia and Libya in details, but the paper will focus on the main parallel aspects of them. These will be the lack of strong basics, namely functioning central government and national identity, which easily led to the collapse of the state; the missed post-conflict stabilisation, which is the historical responsibility of both local and international actors; the deepening and atomized conflict which covered the interests of only a tight elite; and the rise of radical Islamists, who offered universal solutions for the woe of the neglected citizens