Peace be upon you, and welcome, dear friends. How are you? I wish you goodness, safety, and health. Today our subject is Libya. We have discussed Morocco and Algeria, and today, God willing, we will discuss Libya. As you know, Libya has faced many problems, which unfortunately continue. Most of us do not know why these problems occur, particularly in Muslim countries. My view is that they are rooted in oil, money, and wealth, and that as long as there is oil, these problems will continue. Unfortunately, that is how things appear. People used to say Libya’s president was the problem, but now perhaps many miss those days; the same could be said of Iraq’s former president. Let us read about Libya.
Libya is an Arab country in North Africa on the southern Mediterranean coast. It borders Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest.
It belongs to regional and international organizations including the United Nations, African Union, Arab Maghreb Union, Arab League, Non-Aligned Movement, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, OPEC, and COMESA.
The source records a population of 6.597 million, small relative to an area of around 1,800,000 square kilometers. Libya ranks seventeenth worldwide by area [12] and fourth in Africa. It has the longest coastline among Mediterranean countries, around 1,955 kilometers. [13] Historically it comprised Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan. Its borders developed through agreements concluded by the Italian colonial administration of Tripolitania, including an agreement with France for the transfer of land from Algeria in 1919 [citation needed], another with Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1919, and a 1926 agreement with the Kingdom of Egypt placing the border at longitude 25° east.
Libya recorded Africa’s highest Human Development Index and fourth-highest GDP per capita in 2009, after Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon, owing to large oil reserves and a small population. [14][15] The article lists Libya as having the world’s tenth-largest proven oil reserves and seventeenth-largest oil production.
In 2011, the February 17 revolution began as protests against Gaddafi’s government, described as repressive. Demonstrations started in Benghazi on the afternoon of February 15, [16] followed on February 16 by protests in Al-Bayda demanding the regime’s fall, [17] then spread to other cities and regions. Violent repression by Gaddafi’s security forces was reported on February 26. Protesters established the National Transitional Council on February 27 as the revolutionary government. They gained control of many eastern coastal cities, southeastern areas, three western cities, and areas of the western mountains early in the uprising, raising Libya’s 1951 independence flag, which Gaddafi had abolished in 1969.
The country entered a revolution and armed conflict that ended with Gaddafi’s authority collapsing across most regions, especially Tripoli on August 20. On September 16, a majority in the UN General Assembly recognized the National Transitional Council as Libya’s sole government, transferring the country’s UN seat to it. Libya’s “liberation” was formally declared on October 23, after Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was killed on October 20 in his hometown of Sirte while attempting to flee south.