Country: Morocco
Committee: SPECPOL
Topic: Libya
Delegate: Caleb Barker
School: Williamston High School
Libya has been in a constant state of war, unrest, and poverty since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. After his removal from power in 2011, the General National Congress (GNC), a group of islamists, were voted as the official government of Libya. Because of this, many rebel groups were fighting hard for power, resulting in a neverending civil war, specifically General Khalifa Haftar, who launched a military offensive in an effort to stop these islamists. In 2015, the newly formed GNA replaced the GNC. This group however, quickly lost support from Haftar and war resumed. These islamic state groups lost power over Libya in 2016, and as of September 2019, Haftar and the Libya National Army seem to hold a majority of the power. Despite this, the GNA is still recognized as the national government of Libya. The repercussions from these conflicts are massive, and many other nearby countries have suffered heavily as well. Large amounts of citizens live in poverty, and because of the lack of a central government, private militias and military groups are acting upon their own sense of justice, causing huge amounts of violent crime. Because of its geographic relation to Europe, immigrants moving through Libya to migrate to European Countries are also at risk. Because of the huge amount of damages caused by these wars and state of political unrest, it is essential that the issue be dealt with quickly and efficiently
Morocco and Libya have historically been on good terms at most points, and when the protests began against the leadership of Gaddafi, Morocco quickly sided with the citizens of Libya. Soon after the second civil war began, Morocco once again worked hard to help try and solve problems between Libyan rebel groups, and helped eventually form the GNA to replace the GNC. Algerian influence is growing in Libya however, and this has scared Morocco into attempting to gain more power within Libya. Morocco has worked very hard to support Libya through their times of need, but it never seems to help for long. This is why we need the support from more countries to help calm the tensions within Libya, as it’s impacting many other nations in negative ways.
Morocco has worked hard to try and calm the political unrest and violent conflict within Libya, and other countries need to be doing the same. The conflict is worsening as we speak, and although now only Libya’s neighboring countries seem to be suffering from it, the problem can quickly expand to affect countries across the globe. Diplomatic solutions have been tried many times over, yet any solution created through these means has not lasted long. The civil war in Libya is disastrous, and there needs to be a stronger military pressure from countries such as myself to put a stop to it, before other countries are affected even more than they already have been. The citizens in Libya are suffering, meanwhile these small militias are running around causing chaos, because of the lack of a central government. Because of this, it is clear that other countries need to take charge and do something about the mess that is Libya.
- Caleb Barker
