Looking back at what has swept the North African coast in the last three to four weeks, one wonders at when the phenomenon will finally blow itself out and allow the world to take stock. To quickly review, Tunisia was the first nation to be swallowed in the path of this nation devouring whirlwind. It's people demanded that their president stand down and he ultimately had no choice but to do so. After three weeks of clinging on it was reported that his prime minister resigned yesterday. As Tunisia was crumbling, protests started going off simultaneously in Morocco,Jordan,Libya,Algeria, Bahrain and Egypt. The largest Arabic nation on the planet was the next to catch fire, protesters going head to head with armed soldiers and eventually carrying the day when their sit-in protest in Tahir Square pushed Mr Hosni Mubarak out of power after ruling for 31 years. Like a smooth relay race it became a choice between Bahrain or Libya. The Crown Prince in Bahrain being a more humane individual that most of his fellow rulers decided after clashing with protesters and forcibly using the Armed Forces to eject them from the Square they chose to occupy, heeded. International advice and decided to dialogue with the opposition after allowing them to reclaim the Square from armed occupation.
I guess he decided that he had a lot more to lose if he continued to go head-to-head with popular opinion,not so the most infamous terrorist leader on the planet Colonel Muhammar Ghaddafi who collected the baton from Egypt and almost immediately went on the offensive killing anyone and anything that got in his way. We have been at it for almost two weeks now and it has ballooned into a full grown refugee crisis. The media had live footage of thousands coming through both borders this morning Libyan-Egyptian and Libyan-Tunisian they were of all different nationalities.
Stuck in nation where things are not functioning at 100% because of the turmoil there too that has yet to settle. So it is fast growing into a crisis of which if not looked into soon promises to make breaking news of it's own. Developed nations have been hospitable in evacuating their own nationals alongside any others who needed to leave. But the real question is what happens when all these evacuations cease. The military ships and Hercules C130 planes that stand as a beacon of hope. Make their final trips to Tripoli and Malta? Scary withnthe kind of things we hear happening inside Libya in Gadaffi controlled territory.
The international community is awash with various kind of sanctions from creating trade blockades to enforcing no-fly zones,and they are just as determined that this time Ghadaffi has come to the end of the last of his several lives. This time they are telling him there is no where to. With assets worth £1 billion seized and frozen in the UK alone things are looking bleak for the "Strongman of Libya". The UN have a job to assist the NGO's who are already on the ground helping with the developing refugee crisis. And they need ton move soon.
