THE SECURITY IMPLICATION OF THE LIBYAN REVOLUTION ON THE SAHEL SINCE 2011

ABSTRACT

This research has taken a critical look at the security implication of the Libyan revolution on the Sahel since 2011. It analyses the 2011 uprising in Libya, which forms path of the Arab spring following a wave of protest and demonstration across the Middle East and the Arab world that is popularly referred to as the Arab Spring. Through an in-depth study of the topic, the paper also unravelled the critical factors inherent in Libya’s political system such as the age-long provincial divides in the country as well as the regional loyalties at the expense of national unity and integration. The study further exposes the nexus between this divide and the socio-political cum economic development of the country and the authoritarian regime of Moammar Gaddafi with the eventual revolution in 2011. The region has one of the lowest human development indices. With all these challenges, the region is a major migration route between Sub-Saharan Africa to the Middle East, Mediterranean, and continental Europe. The Sahel is contiguous to Libya and other North African states of Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco. There is a heightened and very challenging security situation in the area especially after the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011. Several Trans-Saharan banditry and trafficking groups have the Sahel as their base. Terrorist groups from the Islamic Maghreb also extend their recruitment bases to the Sahel. Rebellious groups fighting for political authority in countries of the Sahel also operate freely in the vast region organizing arm insurrection. Because of the vastness of the region and its peculiar geographic setting and environmental challenges securing the region is near impossibility.