Official figures show that the eight-month military intervention unleashed by David Cameron in support of rebels fighting Colonel Gadaffi’s regime cost £320 million. But efforts to stabilise the country following Gaddafi’s death and the collapse of his government have amounted to just £25m, which has failed to prevent Libya from sliding into chaos.
The UK bombing campaign against Libya began in March 2011 as part of a multi-national NATO action brought in to enforce a no fly zone established by a United Nations resolution.
The military intervention lasted until October that year and saw RAF jets and Apache helicopters attack military targets including armoured vehicles, ammunitions dumps, weapons and military installations.
A flotilla of Royal Navy ships was also sent to the Mediterranean, while it has been rumoured that special forces such as the SAS and SBS were deployed on the ground to co-ordinate airstrikes.
However, documents released from Westminster show the final figure was £320m.
The same files also show that after the conflict came to a close £25 million was given by the UK government in stabilisation assistance to the Libyan authorities.
In the meantime Libya has fragmented into lawlessness, with the control of the country split between four disparate fighting groups, including the democratically elected Council of Deputies, the rival Islamist government of the new General National Congress in Tripoli, Islamist revolutionaries in Benghazi and fighters from Daesh.
Libya is also awash with weapons after the conflict, and many areas are plagued by militias who did not disarm after the fall of Gaddafi.
The revelation of the cost of the Libya conflict and the relative scarcity of funds to rebuild the country follows serious concerns raised by the SNP over the UK’s current involvement in Syria, where RAF pilots have been working with foreign forces to attack Daesh despite a vote against launching military action against targets in the Middle Eastern country in the House of Commons two years ago.
North East Fife MP Stephen Gethins said that lessons should be learned from the failure to create a stable future for Libya following the bombing campaign.
He said: “These figures are eye-watering. The amount of money the UK government will spend bombing a country dwarves the re-building programme thirteen to one.
“The lessons of Libya, like Iraq, is that you cannot just bomb somewhere and move on.