Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh is the internationally recognised prime minister of Libya, appointed as caretaker by the UN in February 2021. He is a construction tycoon from Misrata. Elections were promised within ten months of his appointment; they have never been held.
His hold on power depends on an edgy coalition of militias. In May 2025 his guards killed Abdul Ghani al-Kikli, one of Tripoli's most notorious militia leaders, triggering the capital's worst violence in five years. Parliament in Benghazi declared him "illegitimate". Many Tripolitanians see him as one of the fulul, or remnants of the Qaddafi regime. He is said to have sent his family to London.
In January 2026 his representatives met the Haftars' in Paris with a senior American intermediary and pledged to keep splitting the spoils. They then announced the first new bidding round for oil concessions since 2007. He expressed dutiful sorrow at the killing of Saif al-Islam Qaddafi and ordered his attorney-general to investigate.
I haven't lost my mind; I know exactly where I left it.