THE ROLE OF THE SOUTHERN LIBYAN SAHARAN CITIES IN BUILDING THEIR RELATIONS WITH NEIGHBOURING COUNTIRES

Abstract

The southern Libyan cities (Ghat, Murzuq, and Al-Kufra) played their political, economic, and social role in Libyan relations with neighbouring countries during various historical phases. These cities paved the way for building economic relations, especially the exchange of goods between North and South Africa through Mediterranean ports to Eu-rope. The main goal of the research is to stress the role of the Saharan towns and cities in building relations between Libya and neighbouring countries and to tracking the political, economic and social impacts on Saharan cities, but also their effects between the northern African region and southern Libya towards African Sub-Saharan region. Additionally, it is important to explain the role of southern cities geographically in the influx of illegal migration of temporary transit and settlement areas and crossing north to Europe and studying the impact of instability and insecurity after 2011 in the tribal and ethnic conflict in southern Libyan region. The importance of the study is based on identifying the political, eco-nomic, and social conditions of southern Libyan region and its important historical cities.