SUMMARY

In the aftermath of the 2011 uprising uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, the lack of functioning national security forces plunged much of Libya into a security vacuum. Consequently, this increased communal tensions, which eventually led to localized power struggles between various groups. One flashpoint was Sebha, an oasis town in the Fezzan region located along vital trade- and smuggling routes connecting the North African interior with the Libyan coast. This important town became particularly contested as it harbored several powerful groups and tribes, including the Qadhadhfa and Awlad Suleiman. While the Qadhadhfa – the native tribe of Gaddafi – and the Awlad Suleiman had historically enjoyed a functioning tribal alliance, the 2011 uprising destroyed the relationship between the two groups. Historically the dominant tribe around Sebha, the Awlad Suleiman had been subordinated to the Qadhadhfa as part of Gaddafi’s policies to strengthen his hold on power. Consequently, the Awlad Suleiman had sided with the anti-Gaddafi forces, while the Qadhadhfa had remained loyal to the Gaddafi regime; this eventually led to Awlad Suleiman attacks on Qadhadhfa neighborhoods in Sebha in the fall of 2011. Tensions between the two groups was also exacerbated by the Qadhadhfa’s decision to loosely ally themselves with the Toubou, one of the Awlad Suleiman’s strongest communal rivals in Sebha; clashes between Toubou and Awlad Suleiman had erupted in both 2012 and 2014.

In the years following the 2011 uprising, sporadic clashes between Qadhadhfa and Awlad Suleiman – resulting in no more than a handful deaths – occurred in Sebha. However, tensions between the two tribes boiled over in November 2016, resulting in fierce clashes inside the town. Allegedly, the proximate cause for the fighting was an incident where a pet monkey had attacked a young Awlad Suleiman girl, tearing off her headscarf. In retaliation, men from the Awlad Suleiman killed three young members of the Qadhadhfa, who presumably owned the monkey. Following a common pattern in Sebha, the subsequent fighting included small arms-fire and indiscriminate shelling of residential areas using mortars and rockets. A peace deal struck between the two tribes in late November lasted only a few weeks, before new deadly clashes erupted in late December. Attempts to permanently settle the communal conflicts in Sebha have not been successful, and the risk of renewed violent conflict remained high.

The non-state conflict between Awlad Suleiman and [Qadhadhfa] is first included in UCDP data in 2016. By the end of that year, clashes had resulted in around 30 battle-related deaths, injured more than 100, and destroyed a large number of civilian homes.