Libya is dying, and black Africans don’t give a damn

 

By Charles Onyango-Obbo

In Summary

If Libya, or pre-Sisi Egypt, were elsewhere in Africa, we would have pressured the African Union to send a peacekeeping force there. So why don’t we?

Terrible things are happening in the Arab North, and the rest of Africa south of the Sahara desert, aka sub-Saharan Africa, doesn’t seem to be interested or bothered.

The biggest mess is happening in Libya.

To begin with, it is no longer clear who is in charge in Libya. In a chaotic session, the interim parliament, the General National Congress, a few days ago elected businessman Ahmed Miitig as the new prime minister. The dozens of militias in Libya have rejected Miitig.

Then the other day gunmen attacked his home. He escaped unhurt.

The old premier, Abdullah al-Thani, who at first looked like he would leave and allow Miitig to rule, has now changed his mind and decided to linger as PM.

Enter rogue former general Khalif Haftar. He has raised a formidable army and is launching attacks on Islamists groups all over the country, most intensely in Benghazi. He even has a private air force.

The place is falling apart. There are probably more weapons and bombs in Libya than people, in the inevitable crisis that has followed the grim end of Muammar Gaddafi’s rule two years ago.

Hundreds of people have been killed. The country is broke, and things are getting worse by the day. The US has cut and run, telling its citizens to leave.

In neighbouring, more peaceful Tunisia, there is reason to be nervous. A few days ago, four Tunisian police officers were killed in what authorities called a “terrorist” attack on the home of Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou.

Since late 2012, security forces have been battling dozens of militants hiding out in the remote Mount Chaambi region. Authorities say the militants are linked to Al Qaeda.

We know Egypt and the Egyptians better. They drink our water from the Nile. We play football with them, and their elections are similar to ours. At the start the week, they held a presidential election.

Former military chief Field Marshal Abdul Fattah al-Sisi won it handily. Remember, last July, Sisi overthrew the democratically elected president of Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsy.

He jailed him, and the worst political violence in recent Egyptian history followed. Anyway, Sisi put the election machinery together, retired from the army, stood and won the vote.

That is very familiar in the rest of Africa. We understand that.

If Libya, or pre-Sisi Egypt, were elsewhere in Africa, we would have pressured the African Union to send a peacekeeping force there. So why don’t we?