libya
 

hi everyone,
i'm looking for local information about west Libya ( close to Tunisia ) borders are open or not , region under control ?
thanks

Hi Mickey:

The UK Foreign Office, which is (in my opinion) a fairly neutral and trustworthy source of travel advice, recommends against all travel along the Tunisia - Libya border. See links below:

Tunisia Advice

In particular, they recommend against all travel to Libya:

Libya Advice

I've spent a lot of time in Libya in the past (back in the 1990s, and as recently as 2010), and I like the country and have always felt comfortable there, but I certainly would not think of going there now. The country is in a state of war, with different groups struggling for control. In principle, this means there is no "governance" in the country - it is effectively an anarchy.

I spent many years of my working career in the middle of other people's wars (working as an aircraft pilot for a humanitarian organization), and I can tell you from great personal experience that if you are working or travelling in a country that has a civil war going on, you need to have a very professional and very effective logistics organization behind you to avoid finding yourself "in the wrong spot, at the wrong time".

I'm going to Tunisia next week for a month of motorcycle riding, and I have no concerns about doing that. But I intend to stay away from the yellow and red areas on the UK Foreign Office travel map of Tunisia.

Michael

thanks for the advices , i also will go to Tunisia in october , if you can tell me the situation around the djebel chambi who is known for islamic activities , that's what i was told by french tunisian , have a good trip and thanks again

I don't think anyone has any reliable information on the western (or any other, for all it matters) part of Libya, due to the simple fact that nobody visited for the past 3 years. The last foreign visitor I'm aware of (flying in/out of Tripoli) was in early 2017, since then I have not heard of any other reports. The conditions in the country (and the lines of control by the different warring factions) change from day to day. While I do not hold the FCO advice to so high regard as some others here, and in many cases the advice bears no relation to the realities on the ground (they are not to protect travelers, but to protect officials who can always say later if something happens that "I told you so") I think as far as Libya is concerned, it is smack on.

Hi Mickey:

The attached screen-shot from the current UK Foreign Office Tunisia map (available here, or click here if they change the direct URL next time they update the map) shows the current situation in the Djebel Chaambi park area. It's red, which means "don't even think of going there".

Inch Allah, I will arrive in Tunisia next weekend - assuming no quarentines or other travel bans get put in place because of the COVID-19 virus. I'll let you know what my experience in the green areas of the map is like, but I have no intention of venturing into the orange or red areas of the map.

Michael

Tunisia (detail of north-west portion of the country)
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag.../3/Capture.JPG

By coincidence, I have been exchanging emails all week with a longtime professional friend of mine who lives and works in Tripoli. He is Libyan, born & raised in Tripoli. We know each other well, I've stayed at his home (back in happier days) and he has visited my home in Canada. We've also worked together in Libya in the same industry (aviation).

The gist of his comments to me this week is "No-one in the country goes out of their own neighborhood anymore". This makes sense to me, because it's consistent with my own experience working in other countries when they were in the midst of a civil war (Angola, Mozambique, South Sudan, Somalia... the list goes on).

Generally speaking, combatants don't want to irritate the local civilian populations - they want to retain whatever goodwill they can. But combatants get very edgy whenever they encounter someone who is not "a local". There are a number of other countries that have their finger in the Libyan pie and have boots on the ground there - the most recent of which is Turkey - and that means that anyone who is not a local will be viewed with great suspicion.

If my friend, who has lived in the same neighborhood all his life, is not comfortable going outside of his neighborhood, for sure anyone who is obviously a foreigner (i.e. someone who does not appear to be a local, and someone who does not speak the local dialect) would be at great risk if they were travelling around the country.

Michael

thank you very much

First organised overland tourist group in years visits Libya
 

Good news, though not sure I would want to do the trip (or anything frankly) as a group of 70!

It is nice that it did work! I got an invitement too, the first time for something like this. But I was already scheduled (engagement trip)...

Too see lybia the first time in my life - I wouldnt cry about 70 people...

Surfy

I wonder if the group will go anywhere substantial, like Ubari and Akakus, or just a token nip over the border + maybe down to Ghadames.

Did not realise yesterday was 10 years to the day since Muammar Gaddafi was killed.
There's talk of another Gaddafi standing for office.
https://www.france24.com/fr/afrique/...stion-de-temps

more details

https://libyareview.com/17862/first-...t-visit-libya/

I got 2-3 teaser pictures together with the invation, which I did add to my post: https://www.4x4tripping.com/2021/10/...ng-reisen.html

But this is probably not an approval, that they will visit these places too.

It seems that the people arent allowed to write about till the tour is finished, otherwise we would have seen something more.

The trip is planned this way: 16-31.10.2021 - so we will get a lot of pictures soon.

Surfy

Doing this is probably good practice for security, as a few have learned over the years. A convoy 70 4x4s or even just people would be quite a target to rob, let alone kidnap.

on Facebook are some pictures

https://arabic.rt.com/middle_east/12...8%D9%8A%D8%A7/