Islamic State’s executions of Christians show the group is exploiting Libya’s lawlessness but tribal and political loyalties and the absence of a sectarian divide mean it is unlikely to grow as rapidly there as in Iraq or Syria.

On Sunday, the militant group published a video purportedly showing the execution of 30 Ethiopian Christians in two locations in eastern and southern Libya, two months after it beheaded 21 Egyptian Copts there.

The video suggests Islamic State, which controls much of Syria and Iraq, has managed to further expand in the North African country after establishing a limited presence in the eastern town of Derna as well as in western and central Libya.

It is benefiting from chaos in oil-producing Libya, where two governments allied to armed factions are fighting each other on several fronts four years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. With neither side able to dominate, a security vacuum exists.But Islamic State may struggle to expand as it has in Syria and Iraq because Libya has no Sunni-Shi’ite divide the group could exploit to draw in supporters. Libyans are Sunni Muslims. The militant group also lacks strong ties to large Libyan tribes, and must compete with former anti-Gaddafi rebel groups that have carved out their own fiefdoms based on regional, tribal, ethnic and political ties.

That has left Islamic State splintered into small units that can launch high-profile attacks but whose grip on territory is not firm enough to build up social services, as the group has done to win over local people in places like Iraq’s Mosul.

Unlike in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State insurgents have not occupied any oilfields in Libya to generate revenues, and selling oil outside official channels would anyway be more complicated in Libya than in the two other Arab countries. With oil storage facilities located in coastal areas, Libyan oil is exported by sea. Some Libyan warring factions have tried to sell oil independently from ports under their control but a UN embargo has deterred foreign shippers. Cross-border oil smuggling would also be difficult as Islamic State controls no Libyan land border. But the biggest security headache for Western powers would be an Islamic State expansion into Libya’s southern Sahara, the apparent location for part of Sunday’s video. Neither Libyan government holds much sway in the remote area bordering Niger, Chad, Sudan and Algeria.