The bombing if Tripoli’s Corinthia Hotel has confirmed the entry of Daesh (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) as an active player in Libya’s civil war. The extremists have been based in Derna since October, but had not sought any significant position in Libyan politics. Libya is already partitioned as warring militias take over the country and the arrival of Daesh is not a good sign.
Terrorists and radicals love to take advantage of any collapse of central government and they will seek to radicalise Libyan politics and try to ensure failure of the on-going Geneva talks between all leading Libyan factions. Federica Mogherini, European Union’s Foreign Affairs Chief, has said that the second round of peace talks between Libya’s warring factions ended in Geneva in what the United Nations described as a “positive atmosphere” and this is something that Daesh will be anxious to stop. As the war grinds on, there are a few encouraging signs that Libyans do want to stitch their country back into national unity. Former prime minister Ali Tarhouni currently heads the Constitutional Drafting Authority and he is pleased to report that the work of his committee has got the approval of the majority of political parties and militias. He points out that a constitution offers a way forward that all parties can agree to after peace talks like the Geneva process succeed.
But there is a real danger that continued civil war will offer Daesh and others the opportunity to infiltrate the country and establish themselves from bases that will be hard to eradicate. Libya’s strategic position means that such bases can be used to radicalise large parts of the Sahil, stretching through north Nigeria where Boko Haram is operating, through Mali, where militants won control recently, stretching as far as Algeria and Morocco where the militants would love to succeed. It is up to the Libyan militia commanders and politicians to recognise that their country is collapsing and foreigners are creeping in with their destructive agenda. The longer they indulge in civil war, the harder it will be to put their country back on track.
