London: Former British Prime Minister David Cameron was yesterday blamed for the rise of the Islamic State terror group in Africa by a damning parliamentary inquiry, which blamed his “opportunist policy” for the botched 2011 intervention in Libya.
The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee MPs criticised the intervention by Britain and France that led to the overthrow of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. “By the summer of 2011, the limited intervention to protect civilians had drifted into an opportunist policy of regime change. That policy was not underpinned by a strategy to support and shape post-Gaddafi Libya,” the report says.
The 49-page report adds: “The result was political and economic collapse, inter-militia and inter-tribal warfare, humanitarian and migrant crises, widespread human rights violations, the spread of Gaddafi regime weapons across the region and the growth of [ISIS] in north Africa. Through his decision-making...David Cameron was ultimately responsible for the failure to develop a coherent Libya strategy.”
Cameron has defended his handling of the situation, telling MPs in January that action was needed because Gaddafi “was bearing down on people in Benghazi and threatening to shoot his own people like rats”. But the foreign affairs committee said the government “failed to identify that the threat to civilians was overstated”.
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