A State-Crafted Killing That Rewrote Libya’s Future
Forty-eight hours after the Paris deal against China and Russia, the capable and anti-Islamist son of former Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, was permanently silenced. It was a state-orchestrated killing that effectively rewrote Libya’s future: For within only a few days of brokering a power-sharing duopoly intended to cement Western dominance and counter China and Russia, it was not ordinary militiamen—of which Libya has plenty—but highly trained, masked special forces who, with unmistakable state-level precision, carried out the murder of the only secular figure capable of restoring the political stability of the Gaddafi era. As a result, Libyans continue to bear the endless cost of NATO’s so-called “liberation.”
The assassination of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi on February 3, 2026 in the mountain town of Zintan sent shockwaves across Libya—just days after a secret US-brokered summit aimed at reshaping the country’s fractured leadership.
The Secret Paris Summit at the End of January 2026
Jointly organized by the United States and France, a secret meeting was held in Paris on 28 January 2026. It was attended by Saddam Haftar—deputy commander and son of Khalifa Haftar, representing the eastern Libyan National Army—and Ibrahim Dbeibah, security adviser to western Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and his cousin. Officially, the discussions were framed as promoting stability and unity. A unified government, it was said, could secure Libya’s oil infrastructure (Africa’s fourth-largest producer, with significant control under Haftar’s influence), enable European investment—especially from Italy and France—revive “green” hydrogen projects, and strengthen gas connections.
The discussions were coordinated by Massad Boulos, who acted as mediator. Boulos is the US president’s special adviser for African affairs and had just completed a strategic tour through regional capitals such as Tunis and Algiers to align support for this process. The goal was to create a “duopoly” uniting national institutions and sharing oil revenues, as well as military and financial power—while explicitly excluding “old” actors, in order to “stabilize” the region under Western influence and block Chinese and Russian companies from Libya’s markets as much as possible.
Protectionism of the “Values-Based West”
In essence, the priority was not to promote democracy, women’s rights, or to curb Islamism (reasons the West often cites to justify its violent and illegal interventions—despite the fact that Dbeibah’s Tripoli camp includes significant Islamist elements, while Saif positioned himself as a secular, anti-militia alternative). No: the real goal was to keep China and Russia out of business in Libya, secure Western control over the country’s vast resources, and eliminate any “wildcard” figure—such as a popular revival of the Gaddafi family—who could disrupt the arrangement. For Western powers, a divided, chaotic Libya—one that continues to drive migration flows toward Europe—is evidently far preferable to a united, sovereign Libya under a secular leader like Saif.
Only 48 hours after the Paris talks, Saif was killed in a highly professional operation that bore all the hallmarks of state or foreign intelligence planning. The strongest evidence was the tactical precision: four masked operators disabled advanced surveillance cameras, stormed his residence, executed him (along with others present, including a guard and a local militia leader with his son), and disappeared without a trace—a level of coordination far beyond the capabilities of typical Libyan militias.
A Targeted Execution With Consequences
The symbolic threat of the commando action cannot be underestimated: Despite his at times controversial past, Saif remained the only figure capable of uniting key tribes such as the Warfalla, Qadhadhfa, and Zintan—tribes that still associate the Gaddafi era with economic security and sovereign stability. His strong support was evident in the reactions to his killing: thousands of mourners gathered in Bani Walid for his funeral, underscoring his lasting regional backing and the depth of pro-Gaddafi nostalgia amid Libya’s post-2011 chaos.
Most crucially, Saif represented a secular, anti-fanatical, and moderate alternative within a political landscape increasingly dominated by factions with Islamist leanings. His platform resonated with Libyans disillusioned by the Islamist influence within the Tripoli government and fearful of militia rule; his secular appeal indirectly challenged radical Islamist forces. By removing him, a major “third wheel” was eliminated—analysts estimated he could have won up to 40 percent of the vote in the planned April 2026 elections, enough to disrupt the binary power-sharing arrangement. His elimination paves the way for the Paris-brokered agreement and leaves the nostalgic pro-Gaddafi bloc without a credible, secular leader. The assassination thus clearly served as a political purge.
Gaddafi’s Libya—Before the West Destroyed It
Under Muammar Gaddafi’s rule from 1969 to 2011, oil revenues financed an extensive welfare system: free or heavily subsidized education (the literacy rate rose from roughly 25 percent before the regime to over 80–89 percent), free healthcare, inexpensive or free electricity and energy, interest-free loans, housing codified as a human right (through subsidized projects, grants for newlyweds, and property redistribution that eradicated homelessness), cheap fuel and staple foods, as well as major improvements in living standards.
For example, Law No. 4 of 1978 stipulated that every citizen had the right to their own home or a plot of land, and that such property was “sacred.” Gaddafi’s philosophy—set out in the Green Book—held that no one should live in someone else’s home or pay rent, as this compromised personal freedom.
Libya achieved one of the highest per-capita incomes in Africa (over US$11,000 nominal, over US$30,000 PPP at its peak) and ranked near the top of the continent on the Human Development Index. Women and girls were actively encouraged to pursue higher education and professional careers, resulting in high female university participation and many successful professional women.
A Torch of Hope Extinguished
For a pre-modern, tribally organized society, these were significant political advances. But the country’s perceived democratic deficits and human rights violations—from a one-sided Western perspective—provided justification for the Western intervention 15 years ago. Even the BBC later acknowledged that Libya, once one of “Africa’s wealthiest countries,” had descended into a “fragile, divided state” after years of lawlessness following Western interference.
The 2011 NATO campaign led by the US and the overthrow of Gaddafi plunged the country into chaos, conflict, and instability. Everything intervention was supposedly meant to end only intensified: widespread human trafficking emerged—including infamous open “slave markets” where migrants, particularly sub-Saharan African women and girls, were bought, sold, blackmailed, forced into labor, or sexually exploited—a grim contrast to the relative stability and social progress of the previous era.
This was the harsh price of the so-called “freedom” promised by the “values-based West,” intoxicated by the illusion of the “Arab Spring.” In reality, Libya was robbed of its stability, independence, and future. And now—with the murder of Muammar Gaddafi’s son, the last capable leader who could have channeled widespread nostalgia for the Gaddafi era into genuine national renewal—the faintly flickering torch of hope for a stable, prosperous, and truly sovereign Libya has once again been brutally extinguished. Ordinary Libyans continue to pay an ever-rising price for the West’s war crimes, with no end to the imposed darkness in sight.
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Felix Abt is an entrepreneur, author and travel blogger, living in Asia.
With his articles, he tries to make a modest contribution to debunking the omnipresent propaganda of the mainstream media for those who don’t have the time (and that’s most people) to do the research to see through it.