The Toubou Front for the Salvation of Libya (; ) is a group created in mid-2007 to defend the rights and interests of the
Toubou people
The Toubou or Tubu (from Old Tebu, meaning "rock people") are an ethnic group native to the Tibesti Mountains that inhabit the central Sahara in northern Chad, southern Libya, northeastern Niger, and northwestern Sudan. They live either as her ...
in
Libya
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...
Oslo
Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. The group, which had participated in the Libyan Civil War on the NTC side, was disbanded in August 2011, with the fall of Tripoli.
The group was revived in March 2012, with the aim of "protecting the Toubou from
ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it ...
", following the early 2012 deadly clashes between Toubou and
Arab
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
militias in southern Libya, which caused the loss of hundreds of lives.
2008 Kufra conflict
In December 2007, the
government of Libya
Muammar Gaddafi bequeths a "Shallow State"
The politics of Libya has been shaped by the "shallow state" ceded by former authoritarian leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was overthrown in 2011 in the midst of the Arab revolutions; apart from being ...
stripped Toubou tribes from their citizenship, after being accused of aligning with
Chad
Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...
in past wars, or of being Chadians, not Libyans (Toubous live at both sides of the common border). Tensions rose in 2008 when Libyan officials urged Toubou tribes to depart to Chad, and finally exploded on 2 November 2008 in
Kufra
Kufra () is a basinBertarelli (1929), p. 514. and oasis group in the Kufra District of southeastern Cyrenaica in Libya. At the end of the 19th century, Kufra became the centre and holy place of the Senussi order. It also played a minor role in ...
, when a protest against the exclusion of Toubou children from education and health care ended with the government local office on fire. During the next few days, the Toubous clashed with Zuwayya tribes, who were known for having been armed by the Libyan government during the war with Chad. Finally on 8 November, the Libyan Army intervened to stop the escalating violence encircling the town with troops and
helicopters
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...
, and on 14 November the clashes ceased apart from some minor skirmishes. On 10 November, Abdel Majid declared that the Toubou tribes could sabotage the Sarir oilfields near the
oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment
On 20 November, a Toubou tribal meeting with Libyan officials was held in Kufra, which blame foreign media for distorting the incidents, rejected the TFSL as representative of the Toubous, defined Abdel Majid as "corrupt and irresponsible" and
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until Killing of Muammar Gaddafi, his assassination by Libyan Anti-Gaddafi ...
as "...the wise man of
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
, the founder of its unity and the strong advocate of its security, stability and freedom". Depending on sources, the final toll is believed to be between 11 and 30 killed, and a hundred wounded.
Libyan civil war
During the Libyan Civil War, the TFSL and many Toubou militiamen joined the ranks of the NTC, fighting against the Libyan Army in southern Libya. In February 2011, forces commanded by Issa Abdel Majid Mansur briefly controlled
Murzuq
Murzuk, Murzuq, Murzug or Merzug () is an oasis town and the capital of the Murzuq District in the Fezzan region of southwest Libya.Robinson, Harry (1960) "Murzuq" ''The Mediterranean Lands'' University Tutorial Press, London, p. 414 It lies on ...
and Qatrun, being later repelled by Libyan government troops.
Abdel Majid was tasked by the NTC in late 2011 on the issue of securing the borders with Chad and
Sudan
Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...
. During the
Second Libyan Civil War
The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...
, the Toubou militias aligned themselves, along with their former opponents, the Tuareg militias, under the UN-recognized government,
Government of National Accord
The Government of National Accord (GNA; ) was an interim government for Libya that was formed under the terms of the Libyan Political Agreement, a United Nations–led initiative, signed on 17 December 2015. The agreement was unanimously endors ...
against the
Libyan National Army
The Libyan National Army (LNA; , ''al-jaysh al-waṭaniyy al-Lībii''), also known as the Libyan Arab Army (LAA; , ''al-Jaysh al-'Arabiyy al-Lībii'') or the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF; ), is a component of Libyan Armed Forces, Libya's mil ...