Benghazi: once the home of Libya’s uprising, now a shattered city

BENGHAZI // The old courthouse in central Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city and the birthplace of the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi, is a shelled-out ruin – a testimony to the destruction and chaos that permeate this country four years after the longtime dictator was ousted.

The building is steeped in symbolism. It was here that the rallying cry first came against Qaddafi’s 42-year rule. It was here that pro-democracy protesters and rebels first raised the tri-colored Libyan flag, replacing Qaddafi’s green banner.

Now, however, the courthouse has turned to rubble, like much of the rest of Benghazi.

Today, Libya is bitterly divided between an elected parliament and government in the country’s east, which have little power on the ground, and a militia-backed government in the west. Hundreds of militias are aligned with either side or fighting separately, battling for power and turf.

Meanwhile, Libya’s ISIL affiliate is fighting on different fronts, losing ground in its eastern stronghold of Derna while expanding along the country’s central northern coastline.

Over the past year, near-daily street fighting in Benghazi has pitted militias made up of a myriad of Al Qaeda-linked militants, ISIL extremists and former anti-Qaddafi rebels against soldiers loyal to the internationally recognised government in the east and their militia allies.

Many landmarks have been destroyed, including much of the Old City, with its Moorish arches and Italian facades – left over from foreign rule. The Benghazi University, its archives and department buildings have been hollowed-out, occupied in turn by militiamen who put snipers on rooftops and turned the campus into a war zone.

Charred and wrecked cars, piles of twisted metal and debris act as front-line demarcations between warring factions. In many neighbourhoods, Libyan soldiers have blown up entire buildings to clear snipers’ nests or in search of underground tunnels used for smuggling weapons.

Schools have closed, few hospitals remain open, and wheat and fuel shortages force residents to line up for hours every day outside bakeries and gas stations. Many neighbourhoods have been emptied out by fleeing residents, only to be looted and torched by marauding militias.

More than a fifth of Benghazi’s 630,000-strong population has been forced out of their homes. Those with money fled abroad, while the rest sought refuge in other Libyan towns and cities, or crowded into Benghazi’s makeshift camps and schools turned into shelters.

The overall number of displaced within Libya has almost doubled from an estimated 230,000 last September to more than 434,000 amid escalated fighting this year, according to the United Nations.

Benghazi resident Hamid Al Idrissi says that he and his family fled their war-torn Gawarsha neighbourhood under heavy shelling. His extended family had a total of 45 houses there, built on a vast swath of land owned by his late grandfather, he said.

“Houses were first looted, then burnt down. We lost everything,” said Mr Al Idrissi, as he and his relatives huddled inside a school turned into a shelter.

Civilians still in the city live against the backdrop of gunshots and ambulance sirens that fill the night. In May, more than 27 civilians were killed, including 12 members of one family who were preparing for a wedding party when a rocket hit their house.

The city’s residents also fear abductions at the hands of militiamen from the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries, an umbrella group of hard-line militias.

Benghazi’s descent into all-out war started in May 2014, when General Khalifa Haftar – Qaddafi’s former army chief who later joined the opposition – launched an offensive against the militias blamed for a series of assassinations of the city’s army officers, policemen, judges, and journalists. He soon formally joined ranks with Libya’s elected government and since then, Gen Haftar’s forces have taken back parts of Benghazi.

The fighting has split many Benghazi families, with relatives – even brothers – often joining opposing camps.

One of Saed Abdel-Hadi’s sons joined Libya’s ISIL affiliate after returning from Syria and was killed in clashes. Another son joined the army, which is battling the extremist group.

“When my other son joined the army, the extremists threatened to kill me,” he said, adding that he fled with the rest of his family and now lives in a friend’s garage.

Even those with only a distant connection to militias or the army are targeted in retaliatory attacks.

One of Muftah Al Shagaubi’s cousins joined an extremist group a while ago. Months later, Al Shagaubi lost his home as did 20 of his relatives when Gen Haftar’s forces looted, burnt and blew up the buildings so that they could never come back, he said.

“I have lived all my life here and now we have to leave [the country] ... because nothing is left for me in Libya,” he said.

* Associated Press