Libya: The Difficulties of Renewal and Reform

TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 9 Feb 2026

René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service

On 3 February 2026, Saif Al-Islam Kadafi was killed by four men who then escaped.  Thus, their identity and precise motivations are not known.  However, the killing is one more sign of the difficulties of establishing a stable government in Libya since the violent death of his father Mouammar Kadafi in 2011.

Saif Al-Islam (His name means the lance of Islam) was the son used for contacts with Europeans and international organizations.   He headed the Kadafi Foundation for Charity and Development. His brother Moatassem was more in charge of internal Libyan affairs – a small space given the omnipresence of the father.  Some Libyans saw Safi Al-Islam as a potential political leader in the present situation. Killing him was a sure way to prevent his political leadership.

At independence from Italy in 1951, political authority was given to Sayyid as Samoussi (1890-1983), the leader of the important Samoussi Sufi Order created by his father.  He took the title of King but was more concerned with religious issues than with the structure of the government.  His government had some decentralized, federalist aspects but was largely based on pre-existing tribal associations. (1)

When the military officers led by Colonel Moammar Kadhafi took power in a coup in September 1969, there was for a short time some discussion as to the forms of government that they should develop.  There was agreement on a greater centralization of power, as well as keeping to the religious policies of the former King and his Sufi brotherhood

Colonel Kadafi wanted to do away with parliamentary government and representational elections in favour of peoples’ committees who would decide issues by consensus rather than voting, and a peoples’ congress – all held together by the ideological assumptions of his Third Universal Theory –  a concept that embodies anti-imperialism, Arab unity, Islamic socialism, and direct popular democracy.  The state took the name of the Libyan Arab Jamahiruya, jamahiriya meaning “authority of the people”.  (2).

Disagreements on the structure of the state, on the relation between the state and society, on the place of the tribes and the religious brotherhoods were strong.  However, no discussion could be made in public.  In practice, decision-making was in the hands-on Colonel Kadhafi, his family and tribal allies.

Since the death of Colonel Kadafi in 2011, the unstable country has been divided with a Government of National Accord in the capital Tripoli, with the east of the country under the control of General Khalifa Hadter (who now wishes to be called Field Marshal) and much of the south under the control of different tribal groups.  The days of a unified, inclusive and effective Libyan government seem far away.

Notes:

(1) See J. Davis. Libyan Politics, Tribes and Revolution (London, I.B. Tauris, 1987)

(2) See M.M Ayoub. Islam and the Third Universal Theory (London, Kegan Paul, 1987)

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René Wadlow is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment. He is President of the Association of World Citizens, an international peace organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations organ facilitating international cooperation and problem-solving in economic and social issues, and editor of Transnational Perspectives.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 9 Feb 2026.

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