New SANA Briefing Paper on the political economy of Tripoli’s Abu Salim

Once a hotbed of pro-Qaddafi resistance, Abu Salim is now a stronghold dominated by Abdelghani al-Kikli (widely known as ‘Ghaniwa’) and his Stability Support Apparatus (SSA). Ghaniwa has consolidated power over Abu Salim—the main southern gateway into the Libyan capital of Tripoli—through violence.

A Political Economy of Tripoli’s Abu Salim: The Rise of the Stability Support Apparatus as Hegemon—a new Briefing Paper from the Small Arms Survey’s Security Assessment In North Africa (SANA) project—examines how Ghaniwa’s methods have reshaped Abu Salim’s political economy, and how the hegemonic nature of this military consolidation has allowed the SSA to take on an outsized role in Libya’s broader political and economic spheres.

Read: A Political Economy of Tripoli’s Abu Salim: The Rise of the Stability Support Apparatus as Hegemon

For more, check out:

• A Political Economy of Zawiya: Armed Groups and Society in a Western Libyan City—a Report that examines how Zawiya’s armed groups gradually came to take on a particularly abusive and predatory character
• Continuity and Change: Extremist-used Arms in Mali—a Briefing Paper that investigates the arms, ammunition, explosives, and other materiel used in extremist attacks in Mali from 2015 to 2022, and the sources and pathways through which they were obtained
• Turning Tides: A New Surge in Global Violent Deaths—a blog post that discusses the sharp increases in both conflict-related deaths and intentional homicides, all indicating a reversal in progress towards SDG Target 16
• Perceptions, Vulnerabilities, and Prevention: Violent Extremism Threat Assessment in Selected Regions of the Southern Libyan Borderlands and North-Western Nigeria—a report that examines the dynamics of risk factors associated with violent extremism in southern Libya and the neighbouring countries of Chad, Niger, and Sudan, as well as Nigeria
• The SANA project page
• Other SANA outputs in our Resource Library

Other news from the Survey:

• New HSBA Situation Update on the SPLA-North mobilization in South Kordofan, Sudan
• The Small Arms Survey’s New 5-year Strategy
• New report on the political economy of armed groups in Libya
• New Blog Post: More firearms, more security, or greater gender violence in Chile?
• New Director at the Small Arms Survey: Dr. Mark Downes
• New Briefing Paper on small arms control and on women, peace, and security