The Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, pledged on Friday that the war witnessed by the capital Tripoli on April 4, 2019 would not be repeated. He spoke of the severe human and material losses caused by the war, which lasted 14 months.
In a Facebook post, Dbeibah recalled the war on the capital, describing it as “one of the darkest chapters in modern Libyan history,” and vowed it would not happen again. He said, “This war will not be repeated. Libya deserves peace, and its people deserve a safe and prosperous future, one free of destruction and division.”
Dbeibah listed the heavy human and economic toll the country bore during the war, including the killing of 4,300 Libyans, among them hundreds of civilians—women and children—as well as thousands of injured, both among the defenders of the capital and unarmed civilians, as well as the displacement of more than 340,000 people.
He said the devastating consequences of the war are still visible—from mass graves discovered in the city of Tarhouna, which shocked the conscience of every Libyan, to landmines and explosives planted in civilians’ homes and farms. These continue to claim innocent lives and threaten safe returns for the displaced, he said.
Regarding the economic and material cost of the war, Dbeibah said that direct damage to infrastructure during the war on Tripoli is estimated at between 30 and 42 billion US dollars. This includes damage to housing, public facilities, service institutions, electricity and water networks, roads, and government buildings.
He also noted the destruction or damage of 227 schools and 30 health facilities, depriving tens of thousands of children of education, limiting the capacity to provide medical care, and disrupting Mitiga Airport due to repeated shelling, which isolated the capital from the world for extended periods and hindered civilian and patient movement.
Dbeibah further mentioned the loss of more than 9 billion dollars in oil revenues between January and September 2020 due to the blockade on ports and fields, a 41% contraction in GDP during 2020 alone, and a rise in domestic public debt to over 100 billion Libyan dinars, all contributing to an economic crisis from which the country is still recovering today.
Despite all these losses, Dbeibah said that the national will has not been defeated. He added, “From the moment we assumed responsibility, one of our top priorities was to shift the course of the crisis from armed conflict to a competition in construction and development, from the language of weapons to the logic of progress and serving the citizens.”
"We have managed to launch construction workshops in every city and direct our energies toward road, airport, and electricity projects, and the building of schools and hospitals—raising the flag of hope over the ruins left by war.” Dbeibah explained.
