Since 2011, Libya has been engulfed in a bloody civil war after the death of Muammar Gaddafi. Over the years, it was easy to identify the problem: too many foreign regional players and global powers meddling in Libya’s affairs, explicitly or implicitly seeking to impose their vision on what Libya ought to be through local proxies. These foreign meddlers had no shortage of proxies within Libya. One of them is the so-called internationally recognized Government of National Unity based in Tripoli in the northwest of the country, headed by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh. And then in Sirte is the rival entity called the Government of National Stability led by Osama Hamada. The latter is supported by the House of Representatives and the Libyan National Army, both essentially representing eastern Libya. Although from an optic perspective he was appointed by the Libyan House of Representatives as commander of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army, self-proclaimed Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar is the man who calls the shots in eastern Libya and beyond. He is the man who many foreign parties like to talk to, despite the existence of two competing Prime Ministers and two legislative bodies.

The #Sahel is now clearly the next big event in Africa's geopolitics. After the complete destruction of #Libya, the same foreign powers that paid for the killing of a nation are now shifting their attention to the Sahel, establishing the bases of another sizeable crisis that will take decades to extinguish. 

The Sahel has long been destabilized, at least in recent history. Its post-colonial era has been still dominated by France, despite the Sahelian nations being independent on paper. There have been no improvements for the region, but a fast worsening of the political, social, environmental, and economic conditions. Podcast below and transcript at: https://north-africa.com/zf5r