Most of western Libya, home to 6.5 million people and site of the capital Tripoli, experienced an electrical blackout on Jan. 14 that extended from the Tunisian border in the west to the city of Ajdabiya, some 560 miles to the east. It lasted for up to 30 hours in some cities and towns, leaving multitudes in the dark and compounding the misery of the coldest winter in recent years. A few days earlier, southern Libya had suffered a complete blackout as well. In the past, Libya generated surplus electricity, which it exported to Tunisia and Egypt. Today, it has a power generation deficit of about 75% of its domestic needs, according to some officials. It also has no central government to protect the provision of power it does generate from various aggrieved parties.

The Jan. 14 blackout appears to have been triggered by the most trivial of reasons: a quarrel between tribal militias from Zawiya and one from nearby Warshefana, in the west toward the border with Tunisia. Disagreements between the two tribes in the past have led to the closure of the only highway connecting Zawiya and Tripoli farther east. As long as tribes and gangs can take the law into their own hands, it is nearly impossible for Libya to be safe and stable again. The quarrel that triggered the massive blackout took root in mid-December.

On Dec. 17, a group of young men from Zawiya were taken hostage by Warshefana militias because a cargo of shisha — smoking tobacco — belonging to a Warshefana trader was confiscated. To pressure the government and local authorities into helping free the men, another local militia from Zawiya shut down the pipeline supplying gas to almost every power station in western and southern Libya. Members of the Zawiya militia later appeared in a video explaining what had happened. This episode is not unusual in lawless Libya, where local authority does not exist and what central government there is cannot enforce law and order. In November, an incident involving the antics of a pet monkey and a girl's headscarf sparked one of the worst rounds of violence in Sabha, in southern Libya, leaving some 20 people dead and scores injured.

It took the mediation of numerous officials and local tribal leaders to secure the release of the hostages, ensure the return of the tobacco shipment and restore electricity generation to its previous capacity, thus reinstating the “regular” blackout hours prior to the incident — between five and nine hours a day.