On the 30th of June 2015, it was reported by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming, that the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Libya had nearly doubled since last September, rising from an estimated 230,000 people to 434,000. Speaking in Geneva, Fleming informed the media that the largest group of 105,000 IDPs had congregated in Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city and former joint capital.  Of particular concern to the UNHCR was the mass destruction of homes around Tripoli, the current de jure capital of Libya, and in the region of Warshafana, which continues to prevent the return of many IDPs.  The lack of proper educational and medical facilities was stressed by the UNHCR, as was the loss of effective judicial systems.

That the number of IDPs has been rising in the past year is perhaps not overly surprising, the State of Libya currently finding itself locked in power negotiations between two rival administrations: the Tobruk-based nationalists and the Tripoli-based Misrata militias. This dual struggle for power was born from the cessation of the rule of the General National Congress in mid-2014, which was due to be replaced by the elected 200-member House of Representatives. The election results established that the House of Representatives was largely dominated by nationalists, leading to its inauguration in Tobruk being boycotted by the Islamic-backed Misrata militias, who refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the new government. Conflict between the Tobruk-based and Tripoli-based forces has been frequent for the past year. In late 2014 the Libyan National Army launched a partially-successful attack on the city of Benghazi in an effort to regain control of the region, while in February 2015 the city of Derna endured an offensive by the Libyan National Army and bombing by Egyptian jets in a failed attempt to oust the Islamic State from the area, this being motivated by the release of a video depicting the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians. Meanwhile, Islamic extremists recently seized control of Sirte, a coastal city located between Tripoli and Benghazi.

This struggle for constitutional control has been accompanied by a resumption of fierce fighting between the indigenous Tebu and Tuareg communities in the mineral-rich South-East of Libya. Many Tuareg believe that the Tobruk-based government, with whom the Tebu have aligned themselves, have a financial interest in prolonging and exacerbating the tribal war. It is in the deserts to the South of Libya that the living arrangements of IDPs are most dire – in the Southern city of Ghat there have been reports of people resorting to living in empty water tanks, struggling to survive on hugely inadequate supplies.

The wide geographic spread of urban-centric conflict explains why the number of IDPs has increased so dramatically, the forced egress of persons from their homes in the major Libyan cities being by no means restricted to Northern cities, but a reality throughout. The UNHCR has been working in tandem with local municipalities and various regional and international non-governmental organizations to distribute food, blankets and essential non-food relief packages to the most vulnerable IDPs.  In Benghazi, approximately 6,000 IDPs received such aid between March and June this year. Elsewhere, it has been estimated that the number of IDPs receiving similar aid stands at: 10,000 in Misrata; 20,000 in Zawiyah; 30,000 in Warshafana; over 30,000 in Tripoli; and 70,000 in Zintan and the Nafusu Mountains. If the peace talks between the two rival governments continues to be ineffectual and the tribal tensions between the Tuareg and Tebu fails to be resolved, the number of IDPs with no home and inadequate provisions will axiomatically and inevitably continue to rise.