SUMMARY
From mid-2014, eastern Libya began seeing the emergence of so-called “Shura Councils” – coalitions of armed Islamist militias – in several towns, such as Benghazi and Derna. The emergence of these Shura Councils should be seen in the context of escalating violence in 2014, which further destabilized Libya and allowed the proliferation of local and regional armed factions. The purpose of the Shura Councils was to coordinate the efforts of various extremist Islamist and jihadist groups to establish an Islamic Emirate ruled by Sharia law. In March 2015, the Ajdabiya Revolutionaries Shura Council was established in Ajdabiya, a strategically important town south of Benghazi. This new Shura Council was closely linked to the much larger and more powerful Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council. At the time of Ajdabiya Revolutionaries Shura Council’s formation, forces affiliated with the House of Representatives – Libya’s elected parliament, exiled to eastern Libya in mid-2014 – was embroiled in a campaign to dislodge several towns in eastern Libya from the control of local Shura Councils, especially Benghazi.
In December 2015, forces affiliated with the House of Representatives initiated an attack against Ajdabiya in order to capture it from the local Shura Council. As such, the attack on Ajdabiya should be seen as a complement to the ongoing fighting in Benghazi, and as part of the House of Representatives’ attempt to establish itself as the dominant faction in eastern Libya. The fighting in Ajdabiya lasted until late February 2016, when the House of Representatives announced that it had captured the town from Ajdabiya Revolutionaries Shura Council. While little detailed information regarding the fighting itself was available, more than 60 people were killed in total in December 2015 and January-February 2016.
The non-state conflict between Ajdabiya Revolutionaries Shura Council and Forces of the House of Representatives is first included in UCDP data in 2015. In December of that year, clashes between the two groups had resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
