It’s been five months since Libya’s longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi was killed. His death marked an end to nearly 42 years of rule. It also opened a political vacuum that Libya’s interim government has tried to fill, at least temporarily. 

But since coming to power, the Transitional National Council has faced a series of crises. It’s struggled to assert authority in some areas. Rival militias are still armed. And it’s had a hard time performing basic functions like paying public salaries.

Originally from Libya, Ali Ahmida is chair of the political science department at the University of New England. He’s the author of several books including Forgotten Voices: Power and Agency in Colonial and Postcolonial Libya. Ali tells Worldview how post-Qaddafi Libya is doing.