TRIPOLI: A ramshackle desert hub hundreds of miles from Libya’s populous cities on the Mediterranean coast, was once a favored tourist destination, a picturesque pocket of the Sahara with dramatic sand dunes, oases and volcanic mountains.
Now, however, it’s best known for a bloody power struggle in the desert near the southern borders where Libya meets Algeria, Niger and Chad, a desolate expanse where Libya’s warring factions, unleashed by the revolt and NATO air campaign that toppled Moammar Gadhafi, battle for control of oil fields and smuggling routes.
On a recent winter day, wounded Tuareg fighters were rushed into a makeshift clinic, their military fatigues soaked in blood. One man screamed as a doctor tended to his gaping head wound. Beside him, another man died as nurses frantically tried to resuscitate him.
The men were casualties of the battle triggered four months ago between the indigenous, traditionally semi-nomadic tribes, the Tuareg and the Tebu. Hundreds have been wounded or killed, and thousands of mostly poor families displaced.
“Negotiations with the Tebu have not been successful,” said Ismael Ali Suleiman, one of the Tuareg elders tasked with brokering Ubari’s peace. Both sides generally agree they’re at a stalemate.
The Ubari conflict is just one of many that have turned Libya into a caldron of warring factions, some with extremist connections, where the ultimate fight is between the victors and losers of the 2011 revolution, and who should claim the spoils.
Gadhafi, who variously used and discriminated against both tribes, promised them rights and rewards if they fought on his side. While many Tuareg fighters joined him, the Tebu largely rebelled, but neither took up arms against the other.
The battle now is centered on who’s a Libyan citizen and belongs to the land. Both tribes have strong family ties to neighboring nations – and, by extension, who’ll control the lucrative cross-border smuggling routes and the nearby Sharara oil field, Libya’s second largest, capable of producing 300,000 barrels per day.
The violence, like local conflicts across Libya, is now cast into a divisive, larger political context. Each side is supported by one of Libya’s two rival governments and their varied agendas and international backers.
The Tebu warn that al Qaida-affiliated extremists are in the south and are associated with some Tuareg fighters. Many Tuareg accuse the Tebu of exaggerating the terrorist threat and warn it could prompt the French to intervene, something the Tuareg consider potentially disastrous.
