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Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed huge flames and thick black smoke billowing over the Zawiya oil refinery, the largest operating refinery in Libya with a refining capacity of 120,000 barrels per day, located about 40 kilometres west of the capital Tripoli. Firefighters battled through the night on Monday and were still working to extinguish the blaze by Tuesday afternoon. No casualties were reported. And no group has claimed responsibility. That last fact is the most telling detail in the entire story. A fire in a storage tank burns as firefighters work to control the blaze, at an oil refinery in Zawiya, Libya August 10, 2026. Three Attacks in Three Days The National Oil Corporation said the fire broke out on Monday evening at tank number 402-T, belonging to the Brega Oil Company. The tank, which contained about 4.5 million litres of gasoline, was directly targeted, resulting in a severe fire before the tank completely collapsed. The NOC said the attack followed drone strikes on a...

  Introduction: Once a prosperous North African nation with abundant oil reserves, Libya now faces a precarious situation marked by political discord, posing a serious threat to its stability. During an address to the UN Security Council, Abdoulaye Bathily, the United Nations Special Envoy, delivered a stern warning to conflicting factions, emphasizing the urgent need for a unified administration and a commitment to elections to avert an impending crisis. As political turmoil persists, the imperative for a cohesive administration and electoral processes becomes increasingly crucial for Libya's future. Unraveling Post-Gaddafi Chaos: The current challenges in Libya find their roots in the tumultuous aftermath of Muammar Gaddafi's overthrow in 2011. The nation fragmented into two rival administrations, one in the east and one in the west, each supported by rebel militias and external governments. The failure of the December 2021 elections and Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah'...

  In the eastern Libyan city of Derna on Wednesday, something terrible happened. Due to the heavy rain, two major dams collapsed. Due to this, there were serious floods that destroyed a lot of property and possibly thousands of lives. We are unsure of the exact number of fatalities or missing persons because it is difficult to enter Derna. According to some officials, there may be thousands. We can see from images posted on social media that roads were blocked, and landslides and flooding made it difficult for rescue workers to help people. To locate and bury the remains in mass graves, the community had to make use of simple tools. Derna and the neighboring villages are mostly shut off from the outside world, in spite of the attempts made by the government to fix the internet and mobile phones. Both those in power in the east and those who are working against them in the west use the word "thousands" when describing the death toll. The floods in Derna were to blame for more ...