Defending Ajdabiya

A relatively calm day at the western gate of Ajdabiya, following the ousting of Gaddafi forces the previous day.

One kilometre from the gate a group of rebels marked the last position that we could get to. Beyond this point, they said, the road was booby-trapped. At times, vehicles sped past in the direction of Ajdabiya, talking of shelling around 30km from our position. As the sun reached its zenith, they kneeled to pray. With the sound of planes overhead, they were waving the Senussi-era flag to the skies, not taking any risks of the “friendly fire” that has tainted the reputation of the foreign intervention.

During a lull in the NATO fly-overs, Gaddafi forces took the opportunity to launch five heavy shells at a position believed to be an opposition forces ammunition dump. The rebels responded with four GRAD rockets, although seemingly firing into the unknown, with little chance of hitting their target.

This isn’t going to be over any time soon.

A Return to War

A return to war

I had a growing sense of attachment to the Libyan revolution. Leaving for the first time, back in March, I had felt that I was letting down those I had met there, those who were embroiled in the struggle.

I have no work lined up, but I find myself drawn back there. The end seems nowhere in sight, and a certain regularity of the conflict has caused a low in the coverage of it.

But I feel I need to be back there. I need to witness these events, and document them. I need to see friends there.

And so I return. Driving back through the desert. The crazy Libyan drivers. The excessive speeds. The vast expanses of nothingness. Back to Benghazi. Back to the revolution. Back to the conflict. Back to war.

Sandstorm at the border

Chadian men walk through a sandstorm that engulfed the region around the Egyptian border near Sallum on March 31, where an estimated 2500 people are still stranded, having fled the Libyan revolution. Many of those at the border are sleeping outside under blankets and make-shift shelters, the Egyptian authorities refusing to allow even any semi-permanent structures, such as tents.

For me, this would be my final day working at the border. This last trip would cost me my left eye for a few days. An infection would seal it shut for a week. But I had an out. A comfortable bed in Khartoum, and then Cairo. Clean water and time for repose. For the thousands stranded at the border, right now, there is no end in sight. And no sign of an end to the fighting raging in Libya.

Lost in the Fight

Eight-year old Saad spent eleven days separated from his family as intense fighting erupted around Ajdabiya in eastern Libya. Now reunited, he is celebrating the town’s “liberation” from pro-Gaddafi troops with his brother Senat, how also went missing during the fighting.

On the main roundabout in Ajdabiya, cars circle with Senussi era flags—now the symbol of Libya’s revolution—hanging out of the window. Pro-revolution graffiti covers the walls, but signs of the recent fighting are everywhere. The graffiti is pockmarked by bullets, shell holes crater the roads, and bullet cases and empty ammunition boxes litter the pavement. All just metres from where Saad and his brother are celebrating.

A few kilometres outside of the freshly liberated town, people gather around the shells of several tanks, seemingly destroyed by Nato airstrikes as they advanced east.

Living under shells

Living under shells

Four year old Mohamed hides behind the door of his home. He is nervous, and has had many sleepless nights recently. Unlike the families who fled to the desert, Mohamed’s family decided to stay in Ajdabiya during the fierce fighting that erupted between Qaddafi loyalists and rebel fighters.

“There was firing everywhere, my family was terrified” says Abdil Gadir, Mohamed’s father. A few nights ago, two shells hit their home. “It just went boom, boom, boom” he says, talking of that night. At 11pm, his home was rocked as a shell pierced the roof of the family’s bathroom.

Ajdabiya was retaken by rebels yesterday, but the city is now without electricity or water. The local hospital has been evacuated and is all but closed, and rebels continue to man the checkpoint of the western gate to the city, fearful of returning troops. The front-line in this stretch of the Libyan desert is in constant flux, with fighting regularly breaking out in both Ajdabiya and nearby Brega.