Nineteen-year-old Nawara Afif Sabhi and her sister 21-year-old sister Tajdida had just left their lectures at Sabha University in eastern Libya and were standing in front of the faculty gate.  An eerily familiar site of a car with darkened windows pulled up and three armed, masked man got out and began looking around the campus yard that was empty except for a few female students. Nawara suspects they were looking for someone in particular. Then one began to fire randomly.

Nineteen-year-old Nawara Afif Sabhi and her sister 21-year-old sister Tajdida had just left their lectures at Sabha University in eastern Libya and were standing in front of the faculty gate.  An eerily familiar site of a car with darkened windows pulled up and three armed, masked man got out and began looking around the campus yard that was empty except for a few female students. Nawara suspects they were looking for someone in particular. Then one began to fire randomly.

“We did not know what to do and we did not have much time to think,” remembered Nawara. “I held my sister’s hand to hide behind walls and protect us. After we walked three or four steps, I felt her weight. At first, I did not think much of it until she let go of my hand. I turned to find her covered in blood. I lost my mind and I did not realise that I was shot in my left leg or that the armed people ran away. I only realised that Tajdida was dead,” she said, remembering her sister’s blood-stained notebook lying outside of the gate. Tajdida’s body was taken to Sabha’s Medical Center but she was already dead when the ambulance arrived.

“Tajdida was telling me about our preparations for Ramadan and about distributing the housework among the girls. She did not stop talking as if she were in a hurry or someone were chasing her,” Nawara said.  

Tribal violence

Tajdida’s murder was not the first in which the students of Sabha University were targeted. Three murders preceded this incident and students are calling on the university to exclude itself from any political, tribal or regional conflicts.

According to students’ testimonies, the students and faculty were repeatedly subject to other crimes such as assault, abduction and humiliation especially since the outbreak of tribal clashes between the Tabo and Awlad Sulieman tribes in January 2014, which left more than 251 killed and 400 injured, according to medical sources.

Mahmoud Saleh Edda, Security Officer at Sabha University said the university has witnessed 31 abduction cases in the first five months of this year, 49 burglaries and three murders, all of which happened in broad daylight and in front of students. He added that the force tasked with protecting the college does not have the needed arms to face such crime and it might not have even the will to confront them due to the sensitive tribal situation in the city. “If any security personnel objects, he will be the armed men’s next target,” he said.

No security here

Fatima Ghali, head of the Computer Department at the Faculty of Sciences said: “The University suffers the total absence of security. Drugs are everywhere within the classrooms and laboratories and arms make it into the university without any surveillance.”

She added that she sometimes deals with people who are under the influence of drugs due to the absence of the university’s security officers. She said some faculty and students are calling on the city’s armed militias to protect the university.

Gunmen remain unknown

The city’s security apparatus has not been able to identify the killers, according to Yahya Shawayel, head of Investigations at the Karda Police Station. Initial investigations indicated that the armed men likely spotted their target at the college’s gate but did not manage to shoot him. Shawayel blamed the university for not installing surveillance cameras.

Students’ testimonies

Youssef Saket, a twenty-one-year-old media student, said he witnessed many times how armed men broke into the university looking for a member of the Awlad Sulieman Tribe whether a student or a teaching staff member to kill or abduct to be used later in the negotiations and the opposite is done by the Awlad Sulieman Tribe. “Every now and then students are forced to see such tragedies,” he said. “We cannot concentrate and study well. We are constantly threatened by an armed break-in which ruins the academic life in the university.”

Ismail Najmi, a student in the department of veterinary medicine, recalled a burglary incident. “Three armed men broke into the faculty on March 1 and went to a geology student. They took up arms and asked him to give them his car keys and laptop. The student could not resist and gave them all they asked for. They left the university without resistance,” he said.

Student movement

Abdulqader, Head of the Students Association at the Faculty of Sciences, said the security situation inside the university is terrible. The students continue their studies despite the worsening fuel crisis, the repeated power cuts and the lack of security within the college. He said the college’s students went on strike until their demands were met.

Mohamed Maymoun, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, believes that such demands are legitimate. However, he said the faculty’s administration cannot suspend studies after each incident because it would be a triumph for chaos and the armed people. He said the administration has indeed made plans to install cameras and provide the university security guards with all the needed equipment, yet the current division in the country has delayed their plans, he said.