When temperatures crossed 43°C across western Libya in July, with some places like Al-Azizia, just south of Tripoli, recording near 50°C, it was not merely the air that reached a boiling point—it was the collective patience of a population pushed beyond its limits. What began as desperate protests against devastating electricity outages, lasting up to 14 hours a day at summer peak, rapidly transformed into a full-scale political rebellion against Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh and his Government of National Unity (GNU).

Attempting to deflect mounting public anger, Prime Minister Dbeibeh took to the stage during a cabinet meeting on 18th July to publicly lash out at the General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL). He openly accused the state utility’s management of corruption and rank failure, claiming their refusal of administrative oversight had brought Libya “back to square one” despite billions invested in grid restoration. However, his effort to distance the executive branch from the crisis backfired into widespread public ridicule.

Libyans quickly pointed out that Dbeibeh himself appointed GECOL’s current chairman—a dentist by profession with no operational background or technical qualifications in power generation and distribution—making the Prime Minister’s sudden accusations of institutional failure ring entirely hollow.

Libyans quickly pointed out that Dbeibeh himself appointed GECOL’s current chairman—a dentist by profession with no operational background or technical qualifications in power generation and distribution—making the Prime Minister’s sudden accusations of institutional failure ring entirely hollow.

For over fifteen years following the 2011 uprising, chronic power outages have been a grim hallmark of daily life across Libya, as generation and distribution systems remained perpetually unstable—crumbling under seasonal demand spikes during peak winter and, most acutely, mid-summer heatwaves. Except for a brief, deceptive period of relative grid stability over the past two years—which led many, apparently including the Prime Minister, to believe the crisis had been solved—the grid’s fragile........

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