How a small Libyan town insulated itself from surrounding chaos

In today’s chaotic Libya, one town stands out as a safe haven where crime rates are down and fighting is considered a thing of the past. Bani Walid is a mountainous town some 180 kilometers (112 miles) southeast of Tripoli, the capital. Its residents and those who had been displaced from it are secure. It is the home of Libya’s largest tribe, Warfalla, whose members are scattered around the rest of the country. Bani Walid and its people became famous for their relentless steadfastness against the NATO-backed rebels. The last town in Libya to be captured by them in September 2011, it soon freed itself of the rebels and gangs.

In 2012, its own volunteer security brigade forced the few rebels out of town, and the town’s elders set up the Social Council of Warfalla Tribes (SCWT) as a civilian collective leadership body responsible for managing its affairs.