While there is a coalition of big powers set up exclusively to bomb Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS) in Syria and to a lesser extent in Iraq, Daesh in Libya roams free with no such coalition of the strong threatening its members. Because the West has taken its eyes off the Libyan ball, the result has been the series of bloody attacks in Tunisia claimed by Daesh this year, from the National Bardo Museum in Tunis to the hotel resort of Sousse to last week’s suicide bombing of a bus in which 12 presidential guards died.
These attacks were all planned in neighboring Libya, as Tunisia’s government recently announced. In fact, the gunman who killed 38 tourists in Sousse was trained at the same Libyan jihadist camp as the two suicide gunmen who attacked the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March which killed 21. It is consequently almost certain then that those behind the bus bombing were trained in the same camp, although the attackers themselves in all three incidents were apparently all Tunisians.
Daesh has exploited the chaos that spread across Libya after Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and killed in the 2011 revolution. Because Daesh in Libya has been left unchecked, it does not look like Tunisia’s decision to close its land border with Libya for 15 days, to give authorities time to plan what they should do next, will work. Before the bus attack, Tunisia had already built trenches and other obstacles along more than 200 kilometers of the 500-kilometer-long border with Libya, reinforcing land and sea surveillance. Obviously, that did not do the trick, nor will the hiring of 6,000 more recruits for security forces. Thousands of Tunisians have traveled to Libya, as well as to Iraq and Syria, to fight alongside Islamic extremists. Some return to Tunisia, with the devastating results seen this year.
Since the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions, more than 4,000 Tunisians — out of a population of about 11 million — have traveled to fight in Syria. That’s roughly 13 percent of the estimated 30,000 foreign fighters there. But recently, Libya has begun eclipsing Syria as the main destination for Tunisians seeking to wage violent extremism closer to home.
Since 2011, Libya has served as a training ground and transit point for Tunisians and other North African jihadists on their way to fight the Al-Assad regime in Syria and elsewhere. Weapons are readily available in a security vacuum that Daesh in Libya and other militant groups have exploited to recruit, train and operate. Libya is also easier to reach than Syria for North Africans and Europeans. All this has turned Libya into North Africa’s most promising stronghold for Daesh, as well as the regional hub of a militant movement that threatens every country in the Maghreb and Sahel and even Europe, as evidenced by the double attacks in Paris this year.
When the war erupted in Libya, Tunisians welcomed thousands of Libyan refugees escaping the battles. Despite the security risks posed by these refugees, Tunisia left its borders open. It was a great humanitarian gesture on the part of Tunisia but in hindsight a very dangerous decision as well. The attacks of this year have undermined Tunisia’s sense of security and its economy, of which tourism accounts for about seven percent.
When four Tunisian organizations recently won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel committee rightly acknowledged Tunisia’s advances in civil society. But the focus of Tunisians today must be on their country’s vulnerability to violent extremism, fueled by militancy in Libya and Syria. Tunisia was a beacon in the Arab Spring. It is now realizing that it must also take the lead in the post-revolution fight against terrorism.
