Kufrah ( Arabic: الكفرة ) is a group of oases in Libya . The word Kufrah comes from the Arabic word kafir , an Arabic term for non-Muslims ("infidels", literally "those who hid the truth"). By infidels we mean the Tubu tribe inhabiting this region.
| Kufra | |
|---|---|
| الكفرة | |
 Irrigated fields in the oasis of Kufrah. | |
| A country | Libya |
| Desert | Sahara |
| Average height | 380 m |
Originally, the Bedouins of the Tubu tribe lived in an oasis. Around 1730 they were expelled by the Arabs from Cyrenaica and went into the mountains of Tibesti .
The oasis is actually a group of oases scattered in a wide elliptical depression about 50 km long and about 20 km wide, known as Wadi al-Kafra and oriented from the northwest to the southeast. Due to its location, the oasis has always been an important transportation hub for caravans from the regions of Tibesti and Borku in Chad and Waddai in Sudan , heading to the Mediterranean coast.
In the 1930s, the oasis was the center of resistance of Italian colonial power. Already during World War II in March 1941, Italians surrendered to the troops of free France . An Italian-built airfield is rarely used. On August 27, 2008, the hijacking of an aircraft ended here, which was hijacked after launching in Darfur .
Through the oasis of Kufra lies the path of illegal migrants from East Africa and the Middle East to the Mediterranean coast [1] .
Irrigated Farming
In the early 1970s, work began in the Kufra oasis as part of a large project aimed at developing agriculture in the desert. Irrigation is provided by the fossil waters of the Nubian aquifer system. This is the only water available in the area. Rotating sprinkler installations provide irrigation of surface areas with a diameter of about 1 km, clearly visible from space.
This is one of the largest agricultural projects in Libya. In Libya, only 2 percent of the land receives enough rainfall for farming, this project uses underground aquifers. The Libyan government also implemented a project called the Great Man-Made River to transport the reserves of these groundwater on the Mediterranean coast, in particular in Tripoli and Benghazi . As of December 2011, over-exploitation of aquifers caused the lake to completely dry in the oasis [2] .
Notes
- ↑ Andrijasevic, Rutvica (2006) "How to Balance Rights and Responsibilities on Asylum at the EU's Southern Border of Italy and Libya" Central European University, Center for Policy Studies, Open Society Institute, p. 9.
- ↑ Barringer, Felicity . A Rare Isotope Helps Track an Ancient Water Source , New York Times (November 21, 2011). Date of treatment December 5, 2011.