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When Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown, people took revenge on those they saw as his supporters – including the whole town of Tawergha, from which 40,000 residents were forced to flee.
Now, nearly a decade after militia forces ransacked the town, burning houses, destroying buildings and leaving farms in ruins, the people of Tawergha are returning home.
About a third of the city’s original population have returned – among them is Abdelghani Omar, who has opened a barbershop.
“At first it was difficult,” said Omar. “My relatives convinced me to get into hairdressing.”
People return to Tawergha after living for years in makeshift tent camps, to try and turn the page on a brutal chapter in their lives.
Omar’s family persuaded him that he was doing the right thing and providing a “useful” service to the battered community.
Mahmud Abu al-Habel, 70, tends to his field in Tawergha after returning years after being forced out of town for what Human Rights Watch called “collective” punishment and a “possible crime against him. ‘humanity”. By Mahmud TURKIA (AFP) Tawergha, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of the capital Tripoli, is close to the port city of Misrata.
At the end of the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted and killed Gaddafi, Tawergha suffered brutal retaliatory attacks from fighters in Misrata.
Misrata’s militias played a key role in Gaddafi’s defeat, and seeing Tawergha as the enemy, they besieged the city, pounding it with artillery.
Most of the town’s population has been violently displaced, according to Human Rights Watch, which denounced what it called “collective punishment” and “possible crime against humanity.”
“ Mirror image of Libyan chaos ”
For several years, the militias prevented people from returning.
People were banished, living in grim destitution in basic shelters in a windswept desert plain.
But after a reconciliation deal – backed by the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) – was signed between bitter former enemies in 2018, people slowly began to return to the city.
Their return was not easy.
Residents have started returning to devastated Tawergha after a reconciliation agreement was signed in 2018 between city elders and Misrata. By Mahmud TURKIA (AFP) “Many would love to come back, but they are hesitant,” said Omar, 35, as he cut a client’s hair at the desolate town’s only barbershop.
Tawergha’s infrastructure has been devastated, buildings are destroyed, and the streets are full of potholes.
The scars of war are everywhere.
But after the reconciliation deal and the Tripoli-based GNA pledges to receive compensation, some decided it was time to return.
Mahmud Abu al-Habel, a gray-haired grandfather in a bright red felt hat, was among the first.
The 70-year-old has painstakingly rebuilt his home and helped restore the health of the hundreds of date palms and olive trees on his farm that were set on fire in the attacks.
Abu al-Habel, accused of being a staunch supporter of Gaddafi, was forced to flee Tawergha, along with 26 members of his family.
But today, people should not hesitate to return home, he said.
“We should be here,” insisted Abu al-Habel.
But political tensions between rival administrations that emerged in chaos after Gaddafi’s death are delaying the payment of allowances to residents to rebuild their lives.
“The lack of (central) government” is responsible for this, said Tawergha Mayor Abdelrahman Shakshak.
Jobs need to be created and houses rebuilt, but the government is busy with “conflicts and divisions”, he added.
Shakshak said demands to build 1,500 houses in neighborhoods destroyed by the fighting “have fallen on deaf ears.”
The mayor of Tawergha said that “the absence of (central) government” has delayed promises by the authorities to pay compensation to residents to rebuild their lives. By Mahmud TURKIA (AFP) Tired of waiting, some residents like Tahani Khairi have found new life elsewhere in Libya.
“It will take at least 10 years for the city to return to its original state,” said Khairi, a widow and mother of four, who now lives in Tripoli.
“Tawergha is a mirror image of Libyan chaos,” she added.
“Stability will not come back without a strong and united state”.
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