While many Libyans look forward to implement the outcome of the Berlin II Conference on Libya and achieve stability across their country, others believe that the first steps towards such stability should be through breaking the deadlock on unresolved issues. Such issues require urgent but decisive action, and the most prominent of which is the reopening of the coastal road between Sirte and Misrata.
The announcement on June 20, 2021, by head of the National Unity Government, Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah, that the main coastal highway will be re-opened, following months of talks on a ceasefire, has revived Libyan hopes. The move is projected to yield significant political, security and economic benefits for the country. However, according to media reports circulated in late June, the 5+5 committee, formally named the 5+5 Libyan Joint Military Commission, decided to put off the re-opening of the vital highway, claiming that only damages will be repaired, which made the situation murky once again.
The 5+5 committee, on July 2, dispelled the confusion by announcing that the highway linking Sirte to Misrata will be re-opened over the next week upon the completion of maintenance work. Member of the committee, Major General Faraj Al-Sousaa, confirmed that arrangements were underway for the re-opening.
Reasons of Closure
Libya’s coastal highway was first closed more than two years ago, when in April 2019, the Libyan National Army, or LNA, led by General Khalifa Haftar, launched a new offensive dubbed the ‘decisive battle’ to capture the capital Tripoli, which resulted in cutting off Sirte, in the centre of Libya’s Mediterranean coastline, from Misrata, northwestern Libya, thus cutting all links between western and eastern Libya, as part of the repercussions of the armed conflict with Tripoli-based government and its militia groups.
The development further deepened divisions between western and eastern Libya, thus giving shape to a new reality dictated by several issues. Of these, lack of security and trust, coupled with the traditional rifts and differences between western and eastern Libya along regional, economic and cultural lines.
The closure of the coastal road, which runs from eastern to western Libya has imposed a new reality that impacted trade, movement of goods between Libya’s three main regions in the east, west and south. Additionally, passenger car traffic between the east and west froze forcing passengers to use alternative highly dangerous and messy roads. The result was readily evident on the political and diplomatic levels. That is, the political process between the west and east came to a standstill and the diplomatic routes between them were all blocked.
The economic consequences of closing the coastal road for more than two years did not hit Libya alone, but spilled over to neighboring countries. The continuation of the current situation that resulted from the closure of the main highway, may threaten to undermine the outcome of the Berlin II conference talks.
Repercussions of the Stalemate
In the event that Libyan warring parties fail to re-open the coastal road in the coming days, Libya’s future will be highly murky, especially because it will show that overcoming further divisions is poised to be hard, and will make it even harder to think of making of economic progress, going forward to national reconciliation or implement any political roadmap. As a result, plans developed by the international community to push Libyans towards holding elections by the end of December are doomed to failure.
Another point in case is that many Libyan are associating the re-opening of the coastal road with the departure of mercenaries and the withdrawal of militia groups’ arms. This association directly attributes an attempt by the head of the National Unity Government, Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah, in June, to re-open the coastal road in agreement with the militias based in western Libya and not in co-ordination with the 5+5 military committee. This forced the committee, which was created by the United Nations to re-open the coastal road and resolve pending security issues, to accuse Dbeibah of overstepping its powers. Yet, Dbeibah sought to redress the issue by announcing that the government is prepared to re-open the coastal road. The endeavor culminated in calling for the cabinet to hold a meeting in Benghazi in the coming weeks, as a first step towards overcoming hurdles impeding the presidential and parliamentary elections set to be held on December 24.
Economic Artery
Libya’s coastline road is vital and a main pillar of the economy. Not only it links the west to the east, but also links Libya as a whole to Tunisia and Egypt carrying many goods for the two countries into Libyan cities. This role made the road the main overland artery for the Libyan people over the past years since the Libyan crisis broke out.
That is why the closure of the road also blocked commercial traffic from Tunisia to western Libya, and from Egypt to eastern Libya. The overall result was a shortage of Tunisian and Egyptian goods, especially food supplies, clothing, electric and medical appliances, in Libya’s markets.
Because the coastal road is the main route for most of the trade between Libya’s eastern and western regions, the southern region also relies on it to get most of its goods, food supplies, energy as well as cash flow. Delivering cash money to some Libyan cities became a huge challenge for recipients of salaries. The prices of goods went up as a result, as securing transportation and insurance became even harder, while air tickets between eastern and western Libya became higher.
Based on its high importance, it is possible to perceive the severe impact the closure of this gateway since 2019 had on the lives of tens of thousands of people in highly-populated and commercially active Libyan cities such as Sirte, Misrata, Benghazi and Obari. Movement of people, supplies and trade between the east and the west were significantly impacted throwing these cities into a crisis due to severe shortage of food supplies, medical supplies and equipment and fuel over the past two years.
It is, therefore, not possible to ignore the role of this coastal road in facilitating the movement of Libyans in all directions, including travel overseas and to neighboring countries. The amount of time required to move between Tripoli and Benghazi in normal circumstances went up ten hours at least following the closure of the coastal road. Libyan travelling from Tripoli sometimes have to take alternative and unsafe roads stretching over 1727 kilometres through the desert to reach Benghazi in a 21-hour trip that previously took 11 hours on the coastal road that runs 1026 kilometers.
Alternative roads controlled by militia groups and criminal gangs witnessed serious traffic accidents that killed tens of passengers as well as crimes such as kidnapping, robbery and organized crimes against tanker trucks carrying fuel from storage facilities in Misrata to the city of Sabha. Several incidents of theft of fuel tankers and goods, targeting sometimes even individuals, at gunpoint, were also recorded. This caused significant losses to Libya’s oil industry, mainly represented by Libya’s National Oil Corporation, as well as to Libyans living in Southern Libya who are now facing considerable difficulties in having access to energy products. They have no choice but to use the black market to buy fuel at extremely high prices. The black market, as a result, witnessed significant recovery at the expense of the Libyan economy.
Existing Hurdles
Due to the closure of the coastal road, the 5+5 military committee is intensifying efforts to re-open it in the coming days to implement the provisions of the ceasefire agreement reached by the two parties to the conflict in Libya in late October last year in Geneva, Switzerland. The step is highly important for the reinforcement of the political process and achievement of peace across Libya.
Head of the National Unity Government, Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah, on June 20th, described the re-opening of the coastal road as a step in the right direction towards restoring the country’s territorial integrity”. However, implementation of this move is facing hurdles and challenges, namely a lack of agreement on the security forces that will oversee the protection of the coastal highly after it is re-opened, a lack of security gates, as well as the fact that the road is not ready yet for re-opening because it is riddled with a large number of mines.
Eight months after the ceasefire agreement was signed between Libya’s two warring parties, the provision of re-opening the coastal highway is being only slowly implemented. The reason is that enmity still has its hold on some parties, making it hard for the new executive authority to overcome the current divisions and go on towards national reconciliation.
In conclusion, the coming days will be crucial for determining the fate of the coastal road, on the re-opening of which a lot of hope are pinned for improving the current situation in Libya at the political, security and economic levels, due to its strategic importance as a link between the eastern and western parts of the country. Therefore, the re-opening of the coastal road is among the most urgent requirements for the success of the political roadmap in Libya, as well as the restoration of the country’s unity, efforts to put an end to divisions that run along regional lines as well as sparing it from a relapse into renewed conflicts. It will also be an important step towards national reconciliation that leads to the creation of a favorable atmosphere for holding the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for the end of December 2021.
