“ That was Mouammar Kadhafi”
They called him the Brother Leader, a revolutionary… a tyrant. For 42 years, Gaddafi ruled Libya with an iron fist.
Outlandish convoys, virgin female guards, golden pistols and the country’s GDP as his bank account.
Over the years, Gaddafi had shared some interesting ideas to the world.
BR gaddafi speeches
One of his project ideas was different. Some liked it, others laughed at it while a few others hated it.
BR gaddafi united africa.
But the year 2011 was different. Presidents and leaders were getting thrown off left and right. Gaddafi knew he was next. What he didn’t know was who was about to betray him and who was moving the strings behind the scenes.
Who were the key players after him ? and exactly happened on the dusty streets of Sirte, where Gaddafi made his last stand.?
In this video we take through Muammar Gaddafi's last 24 hours.
It’s 2PM, October 19th, 2011.
Gaddafi is in a secret empty building in the southern deserted area of Sirte. An area dominated by loyalist tribes. He's been hiding here for almost two months after the rebel forces had conquered the capital Tripoli.
He’s accompanied by his Mutassim Gaddafi, his army chief Abu Bakr yunis jabr, his security chief Mansour Dhaw and a group of heavily armed regime loyalist.
While Gaddafi was complaining about the lack of clean water and low electricity, his army chief had just received news about how rebels are close to taking over Gaddafi's hometown Sirte, east of Tripoli
The men around him knew what was coming. The chief security chief approached Gaddafi separately, trying to talk some sense into him and convince him to go and flee the country. But Gaddafi doesn’t want to hear any of it.
But what he heard though, was his last standing men telling him through radio that As the last loyalist district of Sirte just fell.
It’s only a matter of time until rebels discover his location. Everyone in the room knew, it was the beginning of the end.
It’s early morning of October 20th, 2011.
Rebel forces had already secured much of Sirte, but the final pockets of Gaddafi's resistance remained, primarily concentrated in the city's center or what’s called district 2.
They’re executing a common military tactic : Encirclement and Siege.
The rebels are spending the early morning hours consolidating their positions, reinforcing their lines, and further restricting Gaddafi's ability to escape.
They’re slowly closing in on District 2 where intel of his last combatants are positioned.
The process involved heavy artillery bombardment and targeted attacks on key buildings known to be holding loyalist fighters.
It was only a matter of time before they purged the entire area. But the rebels are unaware that Gaddafi is not in District 2.
He was a few kilometers away hiding in a compound south of the city center : the place the rebels didn’t look through.
Gaddafi and crew are trapped. Most of Libya is under revolutionary rule. Most of his followers are either dead or turned against him.
His Chief of Security suggests that they need to go west : To Misrata. Maybe there, they could sneak their way into the airport’s landing strip and get away with a jet or helicopter.
To that Gaddafi agrees. But they can’t move now, early morning. The convoys' noise could get them noticed and caught.
Following a majority decision, Gaddafi, his son and his last men decide to wait for a few more hours. The clock is ticking.
It’s 08.30 in the morning. October 20, 2011. Gaddafi,his son, his army chief Abu-Bakr Yunis Jabr, his security chief Mansour Dhao, and a group of loyalists are trying to escape. They assemble a convoy of 75 vehicules. Gadafi is in a car somewhere in the middle. It would be impossible for the convoy to cut through the city without getting amboushed. They decide to take a peripherial route leading them out of Sirte.
Just when the convoy was about to exit the city, it got intercepted. Not by the rebels but by NATO forces.
A Royal Air Force Panavia Tornado during a reconnaissance mission spotted the convoy moving fast, after NATO forces intercepted a satellite phone call made by Gaddafi.
In less than a minute, a NATO aircraft fires on 21 of the vehicles, destroying one and damaging several.
An American Predator drone controlled from a base near Las Vegas fired missiles at the convoy, hitting many of the moving targets.
A moment later, French Air Force Mirage 2000D fighter jets continued the bombing. The NATO bombing immobilized much of the convoy and killed dozens of loyalist fighters.
After a big strike the convoy split into several groups, with a follow up strike destroying 11 vehicles, Gaddafi and company had become more and more isolated.
Rebel units on the ground heard the explosions nearby, they immediately assembled several armed cars and moved on site.
It’s 11 AM.
It’s been a couple of hours since rebel units and what’s left of Gaddafi's fighters started engaging in a ground fire exchange.
A few hundred meters away, Gaddafi’s son Muttassim was caught in a NATO airstrike that killed him on the spot.
Out of the 75 car convoy, only 5 men were left standing. Gaddafi, 4 others. Since their escape car got damaged by Nato strikes, 2 of Gaddafi’s men decided to separate from the group to look for another undamaged car.
Gaddafi and 2 others managed to escape on foot and sought refuge in two large drainage pipes filled with rubbish. But Rebel forces quickly closed in.
Desperately the men with Gaddafi started shooting at the incoming rebels. But they were clearly outnumbered. Gaddafi’s companion threw a grenade at the rebels but it hit a wall above and landed close. The guard jumped on it protecting Gaddafi leading to his death and complicating Gaddafi’s wounds.
One of Gaddafi's men came out waving his rifle in the air and a white turban announcing his surrender and shouting : my master is here !
Rebel units are finally at the end of the drainage pipes. Gaddafi comes out crawling. He was then dragged up to his feet wobbling and wounded with clear signs of shock and exhaustion. But he’s alive and conscious.
At exactly noon october 20th , 2011 . Muammar Gaddafi was officially caught.
Rebels take him to the back of a pickup truck, some are shouting dog is greater in Arabic while others are demanding to keep him alive.
Gaddafi mumbled saying 'What's wrong? What's going on?.
Clearly he was dazed and in a state of shock.
Gaddafi can be heard in one video saying "God forbids this" and "Do you know right from wrong?" when being shouted at by his captors.
Still images from an analysis of amateur video footage taken in the moments after Col Gaddafi's capture appear to show him being sodomised with a pole or knife.
All available footage shows Gaddafi still breathing while rebels are telling each other to keep him alive.
But a few minutes later, as soon as all cameras go off. Gaddafi takes his last breath in the back of an ambulance.
The 42 year reign had come to an end. But why ? Who was actually behind it ?
Many questions are left without answers.
At 4.30 PM Mahmoud Jibril, the NTC prime minister, confirmed the news that Col Gaddafi was dead, saying: "We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed."
According to Jibril, the colonel died just minutes away from hospital.
To decide the cause of death, a forensic report had to be made. The same day, the doctor concluded that the colonel had died from bullet wounds when the car he was in was caught in crossfire.
Many of the rebel leaders supported this version.
But a man claiming to be an eyewitness told the BBC that he saw Gaddafi being shot with a 9mm gun in the abdomen at around 12.30 PM and initial video footage seemed to show his body being dragged.
Another eyewitness claimed to have seen Gaddafi shot in the abdomen after he was found.
Prime Minister of the national transitioning committee Mahmoud Jibril gave a contradictory account, stating that "when the car was moving it was caught in crossfire between the revolutionaries and Gaddafi forces in which he was hit by a bullet in the head. Which is less believable. I mean how could someone take a bullet to the abdomen and to the head and still be conscious for several minutes.
There are two videos out there, one showing him alive and one showing him dead and what happened in between those two cellphone videos remains a mystery to this day.
The interim Libyan authorities decided to keep Gaddafi's body "for a few days", the new oil minister Ali Tarhouni the rebels want to make sure that everybody knows he is dead.
One video showed Gaddafi's body on display in the center of an emptied public freezer in Misrata. Some people traveled hundreds of kilometers to see proof that Gaddafi was dead. One reporter observed gunshot residue on the wounds, consistent with shots at close range contradicting the official narrative about Gaddafi getting caught in a crossfire.
After his capture and death on October 20, 2011, the fate of Muammar Gaddafi's body became a major issue. An NTC spokesman stated they would return Gaddafi's body to his family for a secret burial after an autopsy.
However, the Misrata military council quickly overruled this, choosing to bury him immediately and rejecting an autopsy. This decision prompted Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to demand an independent investigation.
Though the NTC refused an autopsy, they promised to investigate which ultimately led nowhere.
On October 25, 2011, NTC representatives announced they had secretly buried Gaddafi and his son in the desert.
NATO intervened in Libya in 2011 following a United Nations Security Council resolution that authorized the use of "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians from Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
The intervention, dubbed "Operation Unified Protector," aimed to enforce a no-fly zone, an arms embargo, and protect civilians from attack.
In other words, mostly the United States and France wanted Gaddafi gone. They pramped up the rebellion forces with arms, launched airstrikes on Gaddafi’s military bases and prepared aids for the new authority even before Gaddafi was overthrown.
A textbook example on how to overthrow a government.
Gaddafi's pan-African vision was a recurring theme throughout his leadership, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.
He frequently advocated for a stronger, more integrated Africa, often calling for revisions to the Organization of African Unity charter to achieve this goal.
He proposed the Gold Dinar as a unified African currency. A currency backed by gold and independent from international banking and western control.
Today, Libya is a mess. The country is split up, with different groups constantly fighting. The economy is ruined, and people are struggling.
Basic services like hospitals and schools are terrible. It's a bad, sad situation, and it doesn't look like things will improve any time soon.