SUMMARY

Following the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, Libya was characterized by an almost complete lack of military and national security forces. Consequently. Large parts of the country remained outside the control of the government in Tripoli, leading to both lawlessness and the establishment of local and regional militias. Southern Libya – which had been marginalized already during Gaddafi’s reign – was most affected by the collapse of the national security institutions. Aside from local groups, the deserts of southern Libya saw an increased presence of armed groups crossing the border from neighboring Sudan and Chad. Foreign armed groups utilized southern Libya as staging areas, establishing rear bases and involving themselves in lucrative illicit activities. While foreign armed groups often developed working relationships with local armed groups, they sometimes engaged in violent clashes with Libyan factions.

In 2016, such clashes between the Libyan Subol al-Salam Brigade and SRF – a major Darfuri rebel coalition – erupted in Kufrah district. Sources within the Subol al-Salam Brigade claimed that the Sudanese SRF fighters were destabilizing the region, and that they had been conducting armed robberies. The fighting – which resulted in the deaths of scores of militants from both sides - was centered on oases and checkpoints in several locations in Kufrah. While this dynamic could not be confirmed, it was suggested that the fighting might have been connected to previous communal clashes between the Arab Zuwaya and Toubou groups in Kufrah oasis. The Zuwaya-dominated Subol al-Salam Brigade may have targeted the SRF because it included many Toubou fighters in its ranks, and that existing Zuwaya-Toubou enmity thus may have contributed to the severity of the 2016 clashes.

The non-state conflict between SRF and Subol al-Salam Brigade is first included in UCDP data in 2016. In early February of that year, clashes between the two groups had resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.