Fifteen years ago, on March 19, 2011, NATO came to Libya claiming to deliver democracy and human rights. What followed was an eight-month campaign of destruction that dismantled a sovereign state, shattered its institutions, and opened the gates to chaos that continues to this day.

On February 4, 2026, that same process reached one of its most tragic and revealing conclusions with the assassination of Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi.

Saif al-Islam was not a warlord, nor a militia leader, nor a man of vengeance. He was the only figure around whom a genuine national consensus had begun to emerge. Across tribes, regions, and political currents, there was growing recognition that he could lead a peaceful political settlement and restore Libya’s sovereignty. His assassination meant therefore the elimination of the last viable path toward a Libyan-led democratic process.

In that sense, the killing of Saif al-Islam was not separate from NATO’s intervention, it was its continuation. It was the final proof that what was destroyed in 2011 was not only a state, but the very possibility of rebuilding one through dialogue, reconciliation and national will.

The Western war machine only served its own interests in destroying a nation that could liberate Africa.

On March 19, 2011, the NATO bloc began a violent eight-month-long military onslaught of Libya, a sovereign African Union founding member state, which had enjoyed four decades of stability, prosperity, and the highest Human Development Index (HDI) scores in all of Africa.

NATO’s justification for the aggressive and bloody attack was the now-infamous “protection of civilians” doctrine, formalized under UN Security Council Decree No. 1973. The French Air Force, however, had already initiated a major raid on immobile Libyan Army units. They had already pulled out of the city of Benghazi, a protest hotbed, in a show of goodwill and peaceful intent. More than 400 resting Libyan officers, soldiers, medical, and media personnel were massacred without the chance to fight back against an unjustified and undeclared foreign air attack. Tens of thousands more Libyans would later perish under more than 26,000 air raids, 100 cruise missile attacks, and a naval blockade conducted by NATO’s 30-member coalition.

Among the victims were a terrifying number of civilians from all walks of life. The number of women and children killed was especially high, as they sought refuge in civilian buildings deliberately targeted by........

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