The abduction of Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan by a group of former rebels from the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli yesterday is extremely worrying and points to a very serious security vacuum in the country two years after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.
Mr Zeidan was released several hours later but this does not make his seizure any less serious.
He appears to have been kidnapped in retaliation for the Libyan government’s collaboration in the capture of Abu Anas al-Liby by American forces over the weekend. In 2001, Mr al-Liby had been indicted in a New York court on charges of helping to plan the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that killed 224 people.
The fact that Mr al-Liby had returned to Libya and lived with his family in Tripoli after the 2011 revolution is somewhat symptomatic of the security situation in Libya. Why did he feel safe to return in the first place?
Unfortunately, it is clear that the Libyan government does not have full control over the country.
There are hundreds of armed militia groups – many of whom took part in the revolution to oust the Gaddafi regime – that roam around freely and control vast areas of territory. The State has failed to either disband or integrate these groups into the country’s armed forces.
The fact that the former rebels who captured Mr Zeidan were officially semi-controlled by the government makes things even more complicated.
A number of these militias are Islamist, some of which are believed to have ties with al-Qaeda and that is of grave concern. The country is awash with weapons that can easily fall into the hands of the terrorists. Last Monday, Mr Zeidan told the BBC that Libya was being used as a base to export weapons throughout the region and he called on the West to help stop militancy in his country.
The political transition in Libya was always going to be a very difficult affair.
Under the Gaddafi dictatorship, the north African state had absolutely nothing: no democracy, no rule of law, no civil society, no properly functioning State institutions, no proper army.
Everything depended on Gaddafi and his inner circle of family, close associates, militias and secret police. The revolution finally gave the Libyan people a chance of a better future but the process had to start from scratch and there have been many obstacles along the way.
Until the security situation is under control, Libya will never progress and it could even become a failed state, with obvious negative consequences for the entire region, including, of course, Malta. The international community, particularly the European Union and the United States, must make more of an effort to assist in stabilising the situation in Libya.
The fact that 100 militiamen can abduct the country’s Prime Minister by simply walking into a five-star hotel where he lives says a lot about the security void in the country. Restoring law and order and integrating the various militias under one central command must become the priority of the Libyan government.
Unless this process starts in earnest, Libya will descend into a spiral of chaos and anarchy that will threaten the entire region and play into al-Qaeda’s hands.
Irregular migration will prove even harder to control.
Malta must use whatever influence it has within the EU to persuade the bloc to focus more on helping Libya return to stability and bring the security situation under control.