Libya: in Tripoli, seven years after the fall of Gaddafi, a very sad Tabaski

In the capital Tripoli, the Muslim festival of sacrifice, known in West Africa as Tabaski, was a sad day in Libya this year.

This holiday, which also coincides with the end of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, had generated hope for a free and prosperous Libya, which evaporated with the current crisis.

Seven years after the fall of the regime, the hope lived by a majority of Libyans has given way to a big bitterness: an unprecedented bad political and economic situation has taken hold.

Neither the national unity government (GNA) of Tripoli supported by the international community, nor the parallel government in the east of the country, nor all the other institutions that are highly divided and inefficient do not seem to be able to do much to save the Libyan citizen from this daily suffering. With their special mission for Libya, the United Nations cannot move forward on this issue either.

Meanwhile, the Libyan citizen continues to live in a country run by militias that practice all sorts of criminal acts, defend their interests and impose their influence by force of arms. Instead of being integrated by the government, these militias, some of them made up of extremists, impose their law on the NLG.

In addition to insecurity, the inhabitants suffer deeply from the political division but also from the foreign interference that participates in the divisions between Libyans. In Tripoli, four major militias share the city and periodically engage in fights to mark their territory.

Nostalgia of Gaddafi

In this chaotic situation, economic suffering seems to have the greatest impact on Libyans, who no longer count the number of hours they spend in front of the banks to get a small share of their salary.

In the waiting girls, they are humiliated and abused by the militias who control the banks. Bankers always argue as an excuse for a lack of cash that prevents them from giving their money to their customers and the situation worsened the days before the Tabaski holiday.

Protests have taken place and campaigns have been launched to bring the banks to court. Libyans are trying to find solutions on their own. Another telling example of GNA’s inability to meet the daily needs of Libyans is that some shopkeepers charge their customers with certified checks.

The impoverished Libyans are more than ever nostalgic of the time of Muammar Gaddafi. The Tripolitans have discovered on August 21, in the streets of their capital posters defending the son of the former leader, Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi , who has not appeared for years, and calling it “Mandela of the Libya”.