On 10 February, Chatham House released an article entitled ‘Stability at what cost? Smuggling-driven development in the Libyan city of Kufra’. Written by Tim Eaton, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, the article outlines how human smuggling has come to play a ‘complex role in Kufra’s economic development and overall stability’ since 2011. Eaton explains that due to Kufra’s proximity to Sudan and Chad, it is an important trade hub that groups from Kufra compete for control over. Eaton explains that Kufra’s population is comprised of Arabs (largely of the Zway community) and Tebus (an indigenous community) who have ‘longstanding rifts’ that frequently manifest in conflict over trade routes. Eaton argues that cross-border smuggling in the region developed from the 60s-80s, saying that communities turned to smuggling as a ‘quick source of income’ when Chad's war and international sanctions after the Lockerbie disaster left Kufra’s agricultural economy struggling. Eaton says that the development of a human trafficking and smuggling sector was inhibited due to conflict between the Zway and Tebu until 2015, when the Zway consolidated control over Kufra and the groups began to cooperate out of necessity; ‘the mutually beneficial involvement in human smuggling and trafficking actually appears to have served as a source of stability among rival factions in Kufra’. Eaton concludes that hope for stability not rooted in violence and illicit trade seems distant and raises difficult questions for policymakers looking to simultaneously crack down on smuggling while reducing regional conflicts.
Read the full article here.