Libya (1983: Doomsday)

Libya was a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa and was once the fourth largest country in Africa by area. The three traditional parts of the country are Tripolitania, Fezzan, and. The country collapsed shortly after and is now divided between,.

Pre-Doomsday
Libya has for many thousands of years been fought over by various world superpowers, Libya was ruled over by the Romans, then the Arabs, then the Ottoman empire and until the end of the second world war it was ruled by the Italians however after the war ended the United Kingdom took control of the country as a British administration colony. In 1951 Libya declared independance from the UK as a constitutional monarchy under Sultan Idris.

On September 1, 1969, a small group of military officers led by then 27-year-old army officer Muammar al-Gaddafi staged a coup d'état against Sultan Idris, launching the Libyan Revolution. At the time, Idris was in Turkey for medical treatment. His nephew, Crown Prince Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida al-Mahdi as-Sanussi, became King. It was clear that the revolutionary officers who had announced the deposition of Sultan Idris did not want to appoint him over the instruments of state as King. Gaddafi was at the time only a captain and his co-conspirators were all junior officers. Nevertheless the small group seized Libyan military headquarters (due to the sympathies of the stationed men) and the radio broadcasting station with 48 rounds of revolver ammunition. Before the end of September 1, Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida had been formally deposed by the revolutionary army officers and put under house arrest. Meanwhile, revolutionary officers abolished the monarchy, and proclaimed the new Libyan Arab Republic. Gaddafi was, and is till Doomsday, referred to as the "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution" in government statements and the official press.

Since the early 1980's Libya began to distance itself from the USA. On August 19, 1981 the US navy was sent close to Libya's coast which resulted in a confrontation where two of the SU-22 fighters supplied to Libya by the Soviet Union were shot down. Following this, Libya was implicated in committing mass acts of state-sponsored terrorism.

Doomsday
On Doomsday Libya itself was not attacked, however due to the destruction of many of it's trade partners and the fact that the military were fighting a war on the border with Chad to the south, the military and government leaderships were stretched to the point of breaking point.

Post-Doomsday
In October 1983 Colonel Gaddafi orders the military to withdraw from the war with Chad to guard the borders from possible invasion from Egypt.

In early January 1984, due to public outcry against food rationing, a military coup overthrows Gaddafi (his fate is unknown, however it is assumed that he was exectued), due to major infighting between the members of the new leadership, a brief civil war broke out in late 1984 between the two highest ranking military leaders. Within 6 months of fighting both sides had almost wiped each other out and the country had collapsed into anarchy and chaos. With no main security forces many warlords take control of towns throughout the country these continued infighting for many years, reducing the population of the country further.

International investigators assessed that Libya as a independant country seased to exist sometime early in 1985.

Since the atmospheric upheavals initiated by Doomsday rainfall across the Sahara Desert has increased to a point where it is now starting to take on the appearance of a dry savanna type landscape.

After Libya


In recent years the eastern parts of the former country have been taken over by Egypt and much of the coastline has been taken over by the Greek state of Cyrenaica.

It is possible that there may be conflict in the future as the Touareg, Tebou and Berber tribes that sparcely inhabit the inland desert of former Libya have been resistant to foreign control.

The Libyan Touareg joined with their tribal brothers in the nation of Tamahaq, which slowly took control of parts of southwestern Libya in the late 2000s.

Politics
Relations between the various states and tribes in Libya are very complex. and have had good relations for a number of years. However, some fiction between the two nations occured in the race to control Libya's oil, but recent pipline agreements have eased such tensions.

Relations between the Libyan tribes and Greece and Egypt are much more frayed. Egypt has managed to maintain a somewhat positive relation with the tribes because of the nature of their annexation of eastern Libya and Arab ancestry. Local, mainly Toubou, tribes invited the Egyptians to take control of the area. In exchange, the Toubou tribes were able to remain largely autonomous and receive a portion of the oil profits. In addition, Egypt has helped develop an advanced irrigation and aquaduct system for the region. The nature of the Egyptian takeover has also helped maintain good relations with other tribes in western Libya, though some, mainly Arab, tribes continue to resent their presence.

The western tribes of former Libya have rather bad relations with the Greek state of. The state was formed by a military expedition from the Greek Despotate of Morea in 1986. In 1986, Morean forces defeated the local warlords and conquered Benghazi, renaming it Euesperides in honor of the classical Greek city in the region. Following the Morean conquest, a stream of Greek immigrants settled across Cyrenaica. This was perceived as a second colonization of Libya by the tribes of western Libya and the coastal warlords. Eventually, most of the coastal warlords fell as Greek forces advanced across the coast during the 1990s. This left only the Libyan tribes in opposition to the Greek presence. While the tribes lack the numbers and weaponary to fight the Greeks, tensions have been rising as Libyan coast has been ravaged by a war with Sicily and popular Libyan support for the Greeks in Tripolitania has been decreasing. The western tribes have been further enraged by the Greek 'occupation' and a low-level military conflict could be possible in the future. However, any conflict would be minor. The tribes lack the strength to defeat the Greeks one-on-one and the Greeks lack the popular support and military robustness to occupy the vast deserts of western Libya.

Demographics


Libya is a very diverse region. It is inhabited by Arabs, Touregs, Toubou, Berbers, and recent Greek and Egyptian immigrants. Most of the new Greek immigrants are concentrated in the city of Euesperides, which is stil called Benghazi by the locals, the capital of Cyrenaica. Likewise, the small Egyptian population largely resides in Al Jawf, capital of Egyptian Libya.

Outside the Greek and Egyptian controlled areas, Libya is controlled by a handful of Arab, Berber, Tabou, and Toureg tribes. The Berber, Toubou, and Toureg tribes have largely banded together based on ethnicity to establish rough areas of control. The Berbers, known to themselves as the Amazigh, have established a tribal homeland in the Nafusa Mountains that stretches from Yefren in the north towards Ghudamis in the south. The Toureg maintain control of southwest Libya and cooperate extensively with their fellow tribes in Algeria and Niger. The Toubou tribes control most of southern Libya and make up most of the native population in the Egyptian controlled areas. They also cooperate with their tribal brothers in Niger and Chad.

The Arab tribes of Libya are more numerous than other tribes. Arab-controlled territory stretches from Bani Walid in the north to south of Sabha. Numerous Arab tribes inhabit the area, including the larger Warfalla and Hassawna tribes. Arabs represent the largest population outside Greek and Egyptian controlled territory.

Climate
After Doomsday, the climate across the world was heavily impacted. Thanks to the dust and fallout ejected into the atmosphere by the nuclear blasts, there were several years of devestating drought however recently the climate of northern Africa has stablised and has become wetter than pre-DD. Rainfall has increased slightly since Doomsday and the desert is beginning to recede in certain areas. The fertile Libyan coastal strip has expanded southward.

In addition to overall climate changes, eastern Libya has experienced slight greening thanks to Egyptian engineering. Lake Qattara has expanded acrossed the former Libyan/Egyptian border into the area south of Al Jaghbub. Elsewhere in eastern Libya, several aquifers have been dug with Egyptian assistance to provide more water to the local population.