Terrorist and Armed Groups in the Fezzan-Sahel Region: Recruitment and Communication Tactics
Terrorist and Armed Groups in the Fezzan-Sahel Region: Recruitment and Communication Tactics

Author(s): Stefano Marcuzzi, Jason Pack
Contributor(s): Tomass Pildegovičs (Editor)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Social Sciences, Communication studies, Sociology, Government/Political systems, Theory of Communication, Criminology, Studies in violence and power
Published by: NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence
Keywords: Terrorist and armed groups; Fezzan-Sahel region; criminal gangs; jihadists; criminal networks; weakness of state institutions; communication tactics;
Summary/Abstract: This report discusses terrorist and armed group activity in the Libyan Fezzan (southwestern Libya) as well as these groups’ ties to local tribes. Since the downfall of Mu’ammar Qaddafi in 2011, Libya has become a hotspot for militias, criminal gangs, and jihadists. The geographic focal points of terrorist groups are shifting, however. In the northern part of the country, the territorial concentrations of these groups were largely defeated by 2017; conversely, in the Fezzan and the neighbouring countries of the Sahel, jihadi groups have proven resilient. In spite of international airstrikes and attacks by some Libyan forces (notably, the Libyan National Army or LNA), jihadi groups have survived, adapted their communication tactics to the local context and even engaged in lucrative criminal activities across the Fezzan-Sahel borders, further blurring the lines between jihadist and criminal networks.

• Details
• Contents