{Five years ago he picked up a gun and joined Libya\u2019s rebels to depose Muammar Gaddafi in a blaze of patriotic vigour. Half a decade later the Tripoli medical student will mark Wednesday\u2019s anniversary of the Arab spring revolution treating militia fighters wounded in battles with Islamic State.}<\/p>\n
Libya marks the fifth anniversary of its revolution with the country torn by civil war and Isis expanding quickly into the chaos. \u201cBack then it was simple, we fought for freedom,\u201d says the medical student, who asked to remain anonymous. \u201cBut a lot of time, you wonder was it worth it?\u201d<\/p>\n
His new job involves patching up wounded militiamen battling Isis at Surman, a small town close to the ancient Roman city of Sabratha, 30 miles west of Tripoli. When the militias are not fighting Isis, they fight each other.<\/p>\n
Civil war between a militia coalition, Libya Dawn, which holds Tripoli, and the elected parliament in Tobruk has raged since the summer of 2014. It is a war that has left 5,000 dead, the economy in ruins, half a million homeless and the dreams of 2011 shattered.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody was optimistic back then,\u201d said Guma El-Gamaty, who was the rebel government\u2019s London envoy during the revolution. \u201cWe are now suffering the legacy of Gaddafi, the lack of institutions, no democracy, the lack of knowing how to come together.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Isis now attacking the country\u2019s oil ports, talk is of western military intervention, with the UK Foreign Office confirming this month that RAF jets are in the skies over Libya.<\/p>\n
Diplomats caution that airstrikes against Isis should take place after Tripoli and Tobruk have ended their civil war, allowing a unified state to turn its guns on the militants.<\/p>\n
But the latest United Nations deadline for a peace deal to end the civil war came and went on Monday with bickering over a unified cabinet. Leaders of an embryonic unity government are exiled in Tunisia and Morocco, facing hostility from both Tripoli and Tobruk.<\/p>\n
\u201cLibya is becoming a scenario whereby you will have three governments,\u201d says Ludovico Carlino of IHS Jane\u2019s, a London defence analyst. \u201cAn intervention [without a unity government] will probably cause more anarchy and chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n
El-Gamaty says he remains hopeful, insisting talks are progressing. \u201cIt is process, it is in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diplomats say there is no alternative to more mediation, with Britain\u2019s Libya envoy, Jonathan Powell, telling a parliamentary inquiry in London last week: \u201cIf what we are doing fails, plan B is going to be very much like plan A, trying to get a government that the country will accept.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others are losing patience. The Pentagon said last month it has special forces in Libya seeking \u201cpartnerships\u201d with local militias to take on Isis.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the population can only suffer. \u201cSome people say they want to go back to the time of Gaddafi,\u201d says the medical student. \u201cI don\u2019t. Where I want to go is out, out of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source:The Guardian:[Five years after Gaddafi, Libya torn by civil war and battles with Isis->http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2016\/feb\/16\/libya-gaddafi-arab-spring-civil-war-islamic-state]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Five years ago he picked up a gun and joined Libya\u2019s rebels to depose Muammar Gaddafi in a blaze of patriotic vigour. Half a decade later the Tripoli medical student will mark Wednesday\u2019s anniversary of the Arab spring revolution treating militia fighters wounded in battles with Islamic State.} Libya marks the fifth anniversary of its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000072242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[234],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-the-guardian"],"bylines":[{"id":234,"name":"The Guardian","slug":"the-guardian","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":78}],"contributors":[{"id":234,"name":"The Guardian","slug":"the-guardian","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":78}],"featured_image":{"id":2000072242,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23281.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23281.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23281.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23281.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23281.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23281.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000072242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23281"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23281"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}