Libya's transition has been bogged down by insecurity and chaos, leaving the country looking like a "failed state" six years after the uprising and Western military intervention that ended Muammar Gaddafi's rule.
"We got rid of one dictator only to see 10,000 others take his place," said Fatma al-Zawi, a Tripoli housewife, bemoaning the multitude of warlords and militias which have run the North African country since the armed revolt which erupted in mid-February 2011.
Ordinary Libyans were showing little enthusiasm in the lead-up to the anniversary, which authorities marked on Thursday with cultural and sporting events in Martyrs' Square in the capital.
“It’s not entirely a failed state. There is a government structure in place which more or less operates,” said FRANCE 24’s chief foreign editor Robert Parsons. “But if you’re an ordinary Libyan at the moment, the picture is certainly not a pretty one,” he said. “Six years after the fall of Colonel Gaddafi, they would have hoped for something much better. They were optimistic six years ago and that optimism was quite clearly been misplaced.”
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