With the recent surge of news regarding the destruction of Libya caused by heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding, it is worth looking back to better understand the nation’s current struggles. In the decade leading up to the tragic incident, the country underwent a period of devastating turmoil and unrest. As a result, the people of Libya were left completely unprepared and unable to anticipate the catastrophic storm.
The troubles began in 2011 with the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s long-time dictator. Following this, the nation’s government disintegrated and eventually devolved into a state of civil war by 2014. The fighting among rival factions over a severely weakened state made the nation utterly destitute and vulnerable.
Without a strong government to carry out the needs of its people and to manage resources effectively, Libya was left to an uncertain future. With nominimum guaranteed standards for health, education, or infrastructure, the population lacked even the most basic needs for protection.
It was in the midst of this prolonged strife that the storm of 2020 struck the country with devastating force. Although meteorologists had predicted torrents of rain and flooding weeks beforehand, the nation’s people were unprepared and unable to cope with the consequences that followed.
The catastrophe left entire cities underwater and hundreds of families homeless. With the aid of NGOs, however, some of the victims were able to find refuge. Nonetheless, with the nation still in a state of disarray, and security largely absent, the task of recovery will prove a difficult and prolonged one.
In the end, it is clear that the decade-long struggle of Libya in the past decade left the nation unequipped to weather the storms of the present. This serves as a reminder that the injustices of the wars of the past must be addressed to avoid disastrous consequences in the future. In this way, we can hope to mitigate the worry of future catastrophes and build a more risk-averse and organized approach to weathering further storms.
