Global InformationLibyan genocide information
 | It has been suggested that this article be merged into Second Italo-Senussi War. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2024. |
| Libyan genocide | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Second Italo-Senussi War and Italian colonization of Libya | |
 Inmates at the El Agheila concentration camp | |
| Location | Italian Libya |
| Date | 1929–1934 (main phase) |
| Target | Libyan Arabs |
Attack type | Genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass killings, forced displacement, forced death marches, settler colonialism, chemical warfare, concentration camps and no quarter |
| Deaths |
|
| Perpetrator | Italian Empire |
| Motive | Italian fascism, imperialism, anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia |
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The Libyan genocide, also known in Libya as Shar (Arabic: شر, lit. 'Evil'),[1]: 98 was the genocide of Libyan Arabs and the systematic destruction of Libyan culture, particularly during and after the Second Italo-Senussi War between 1929 and 1934.[2] During this period, between 83,000[3][4] and 125,000[5][6] Libyans were killed by Italian colonial authorities under Benito Mussolini. Near 50% of the population of Cyrenaica had been killed, with the majority taking place in concentration camps, resulting in a population decline from 225,000 to 142,000 civilians.[3] In totality, Libyan deaths during the entire Italian colonial period is estimated to be much higher, with estimates placing the number at 250,000–300,000,[6] 500,000[7] and up to 750,000.[6]
This period was marked by a brutal campaign characterized by widespread major Italian war crimes, including ethnic cleansing, mass killings, forced displacement, forced death marches, settler colonialism, the use of chemical weapons, the use of concentration camps, mass executions of civilians and refusing to take prisoners of war and instead executing surrendering combatants.[3] The indigenous population, particularly the nomadic Bedouin tribes, faced extreme violence and suppression in an attempt to quell Senussi resistance to colonial rule.[2] The Italian military killed half of the Bedouin population of Libya between 1928 and 1932.[8]
The genocide was based on a racist and fascist colonial plan to settle poor Italian peasants in Libya and crush the resistance of the Senusiyya, led by Omar al-Mukhtar. About 110,000 Libyan civilians were forced to march from their homes to the harsh Libyan desert and were then interned in Italian concentration camps in Libya. Between 60,000 and 70,000 mostly rural people, including women and children, and their 600,000 animals died of diseases and were starved to death.[2] Rochat estimates that 90 to 95% of the sheep, goats, and horses, and possibly 80% of the cattle and camels, died by 1934.[1] The annihilation of animals to a semi-nomadic people condemened the population to famine.
News about the genocide was heavily suppressed by Fascist Italy, evidence was largely destroyed, making remaining files in Italian concentration camps in Libya difficult to find even after the end of Fascist rule in Italy in 1945. The only camp with a record of prisoners is the Swani al-Tariya camp. However, the mass graves still attest to the genocide. The history that Libyans recorded in their Arabic oral history has remained hidden and unexplored in systematic fashion.[2][9][1]: 40 As a result, Italian colonization and atrocities in Ethiopia are better studied and more well known than Libyan cases.[1]: 40 It was not until 2008 that Italy apologized for its killing, destruction and repression of the Libyan people during its colonization of Libya, and stated that this was a "complete and moral acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on Libya by Italy during the colonial era".[10]
The Libyan Genocide also has a direct link to the Holocaust, as the death camps were visited by Nazi notables like Himmler and Goering.
- ^ a b c d Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif (2020-08-06). Genocide in Libya: Shar, a Hidden Colonial History. Routledge. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-000-16936-2.
- ^ a b c d Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif (2023), Kiernan, Ben; Naimark, Norman; Straus, Scott; Lower, Wendy (eds.), "Eurocentrism, Silence and Memory of Genocide in Colonial Libya, 1929–1934", The Cambridge World History of Genocide: Volume 3: Genocide in the Contemporary Era, 1914–2020, The Cambridge World History of Genocide, vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 118–140, ISBN 978-1-108-76711-8, retrieved 2023-12-10
- ^ a b c Duggan, Christopher (2008). The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 497. ISBN 978-0-618-35367-5.
- ^ "Fascist Italy and the forgotten Libyan genocide". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
- ^ Shahmoradian, Dr Feridoun Shawn (2022-08-02). Reign of the Essence: Encyclopedia of Critical Thinking. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-6655-6662-9.
- ^ a b c "Twentieth Century Atlas - Death Tolls". necrometrics.com. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:8was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Ilan Pappé, The Modern Middle East. Routledge, 2005, ISBN 0-415-21409-2, p. 26.
- ^ Kiernan, Ben; Lower, Wendy; Naimark, Norman; Straus, Scott (2023-01-31). The Cambridge World History of Genocide: Volume 3, Genocide in the Contemporary Era, 1914–2020. Cambridge University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-108-80627-5.
- ^ The Report: Libya 2008. Oxford Business Group. 2008. p. 17.