Black Prince conspiracy
The Black Prince conspiracy was a 1970 coup plot by former officers of the Libyan Kingdom to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi's newly established regime and restore the Senussi monarchy, which had ruled Libya until the 1969 Libyan Revolution. The conspiracy was named after Ahmed al-Senussi, a member of the Senussi royal family who was reportedly involved in the plot.[1][2]
The conspirators, numbering about 200 soldiers, planned to invade Libya from neighouring Chad. Their objective was to capture the town of Sebha, in the Fezzan region of Southern Libya, which would serve as a staging ground for the retaking of major cities such as Tripoli and Benghazi, with the eventual goal of bringing back the Libyan monarchy and undoing the changes brought about by Gaddafi's revolution.[1]
The conspiracy was reportedly supplied with arms by external powers, including Israel.[3][4] Muammar Gaddafi dismissed the conspirators as "reactionary retired police officers and contractors" seeking to restore the old regime for their own gain, as it had benefited them in the past.[1]
The planned coup was prematurely thwarted when government authorities discovered a cache of weapons in Sebha, which led to the arrests of around 20 people involved, who were later sentenced to varying terms of prison.[5]
Following the suppression of the conspiracy, the Gaddafi government took major steps in consolidating power, such as removing any remnants of colonial influence, expelling foreign military bases, and targeting foreign-owned – including Italian-owned – businesses. These measures were part of a broader effort to transform Libyan society by asserting Arab and Islamic identity and also the nationalization of the economy.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Simons, Geoff (1993). Libya: The Struggle for Survival. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 202–203. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-22633-7. ISBN 978-1-349-22633-7. OCLC 26673931. OL 7968811W.
In May 1970 the discovery of an arms cache in Sebba provided evidence of a monarchist plot centred on Fezzan. This was the so-called 'Black Prince' conspiracy (on account of the dark features of Abdullah al-Sanussi) in which former Sanussi officers were to invade Libya from Chad with an army of two hundred brotherhood members with the intention of seizing Sebba as a prelude to the reconquest of Tripoli and Benghazi. One suggestion was that the Israelis had supported the conspiracy by providing arms. Gaddafi himself saw the plotters as 'reactionary retired police officers and contractors who had profited from the defunct regime.' About twenty individuals were arrested and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.
- ^ Solomon, Hussein; Swart, Gerrie (2005). "Libya's foreign policy in flux". African Affairs. 104 (416): 469–492. doi:10.1093/afraf/adi006.
- ^ Azevedo, Mario (1998). Chad: A Nation in Search of its Future. Nations of the Modern World: Africa. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-8677-5. OCLC 37132419. OL 2661426W.
- ^ Cooley, John K. (1982). Libyan Sandstorm. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. ISBN 978-0-03-060414-0. OCLC 644408239. OL 4451899W.
- ^ Bearman, Jonathan (1986). Qadhafi's Libya. London: Zed Books. ISBN 978-0-86232-433-9. OCLC 1194912538. OL 5275598W.