Libya will "run out of money" in 18 months despite once being one of Africa's richest countries, officials have told The Telegraph as internecine fighting grinds its oil and gas industry to a halt.
Mashala Zwai, the oil minister for one of Libya's two rival governments, warned that the country was becoming "a second Somalia".
"This is a critical time in a critical situation," said Mr Zwai, speaking from the Tripoli offices of the National Oil Corporation, which manages Libya's energy sector. "By next year the state will not be able to pay Libyans' salaries."
Oil battlefields
With the government split into two rival authorities, Libya's oil installations are becoming battlefields where affiliated militias vie for power.
They are also the focus of attacks by Islamist extremists, including a local branch of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), who are thriving in the country's state of lawlessness. » | Ruth Sherlock, near Sidra, Libya, video by Sam Tarling | Monday, March 09, 2015
