Photo Gallery 'A Minefield'
A fighter with the pro-government forces loyal to Libya's Government of National Unity looks burning vehicles after a suicide bomber with the Islamic State detonated his explosive close to the group of soldiers on August 16. The civil-war torn country lacks not only order, but leadership, structure and a sense ofcommon identity that might keep people together in these uncertain times.
The country is divided into east and west, with the parliament in the east not officially recognizing the United Nations-brokered central government in Tripoli. Meanwhile, Sirte remains a stronghold of the Islamic State.
The West is hoping that the prime minister it installed to create the National Unity government, Fayez Sarraj, can bring order to the country. In his interview with SPIEGEL, Sarraj lamented that his people have long been warning about a lack of police, military and a functioning civil society in post-Gadhafi Libya. "We often pointed this out to the world, but nobody listened. No one gave us support," he said.
A street scene in the old city of Tripoli. "Libya is a bridge to the West for migrants and smugglers," said Prime Minister Sarraj.
Few countries in the world are as important to Germany right now as Libya. It has been reported that the country's biggest human-trafficker is responsible for smuggling 50,000 migrants a year into Europe illegally. Here, migrants on a boat that departed Libya are about to be rescued by a Spanish NGO.
"The city of Sirte, under the shadow of Sharia," reads this sign in the Libyan city controlled by Islamic State. Although gains are being made against IS, the terrorist organization has found a home in the burning country.
