A Bleeding Tripoli

Khairy Shaaban Photography

I am currently going through the inner conflict of being away from home but wanting to be home now as my home, Tripoli is being attacked by Khalifa Haftar. He decided over a year ago to attack Tripoli under the name of eradicating militia groups but ended up killing civilians instead and over the past few months and especially during the Holy month of Ramadan, he decided to heavily bomb neighborhoods in Tripoli. It is such a critical time for people, living in a world facing a pandemic while trying to dodge rockets Haftar is throwing on them in order to have a second chance to live. It is as if Coronavirus is not enough!

Civilians have been displaced, including my family members, and many lost their homes and loved ones. All I am thinking about is the sound of bombing, my family and people of Tripoli, are hearing every single day and I am here not being able to do anything and just waking up every single day to the sad news of innocent people who lost their lives because a criminal wants to seize power on the bodies of those he killed. 

I am physically away but I left my mind there two years ago, however, this time the stress is heavier. What will happen next? No one is stopping him from killing people. I am not able to sleep at night because all I am thinking about is home. He is destroying the main and only airport left in Tripoli, Mitiga airport, and still thinks that it is not enough. He is destroying homes, killing people, and spreading death in the city of freedom, authenticity, and beauty. He wants to turn it into a dead and ghosted place. Even if the world is being silent about what Hafter is doing, people of Tripoli will never forget what he has done and still does and there are many who are documenting his inhumane actions every single day. He is killing them to seize the country by force. ''It is either I control you or kill you'' - the phrase every tyrant would use to control people and we have seen plenty who used it before him.

Are we replacing a tyrant with another one? Was the revolution done in vain? Was it done so we can go back to military control? Is this the democracy and justice people called for in 2011? How many more people will we lose until the war ends in Tripoli? And how will it stop? Will I lose my family and loved ones next? I am writing this with a heavy mind and worried soul and I only wish if I can answer these questions but I know I can't. Keep Tripoli in your prayers.