Security forces violently suppress protests against the 42-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi in the eastern city of Benghazi.

Clashes between pro-government forces and rebels escalate; NATO begins airstrikes in support of the rebels.

Anti-Gaddafi rebels force members of the allegedly pro-Gaddafi Meshashiyah tribe to flee their western hometown of Zintan.

Thousands of residents of the western town of Tawergha are forced to flee as rebels converge on the town. A total of 48,000 Tawerghans are displaced.

Gaddafi is killed in his hometown of Sirte; between 100,000 and 150,000 Libyans are displaced by the fighting.

Libyans vote for a General National Congress (GNC), which is supposed to put in place mechanisms to draft a constitution, as well as select a prime minister and cabinet.

Libyans vote for a committee to draft a new constitution, which is drafted in 2017 but not adopted.

Libya begins to collapse into civil war as Khalifa Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army, which later backs a House of Representatives based in Tobruk, launches an offensive on a coalition known as Libya Dawn.

General elections see low turnout and clashes continue across the country.

The so-called Islamic State takes control of part of the eastern coastal city of Derna.

By December, 90,000 people have been forcibly displaced by fighting in the Benghazi area.

By the start of the year, 400,000 people have been displaced across the country.

The UN helps set up a Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, in an attempt to unite the country.

The so-called Islamic State is defeated in Libya, but fierce battles destroy homes and force many more to flee.

Despite reconciliation agreements, armed groups and authorities block thousands of Tawerghans from returning home.

Clashes escalate in the urban centres of Tripoli, Derna, and Sebha, triggering 70,000 new displacements over the course of 2018.

Fighting breaks out in Tripoli between Haftar’s LNA and the GNA.

By late May, at least 83,000 more Libyans have been forced to flee their homes, a number that reaches 200,000 over the next year.

Fighters affiliated with the GNA drive Haftar’s fighters out of the town of Tarhouna, the LNA’s last stronghold in the west, prompting the discovery of mass graves.

The GNA and the LNA sign a “permanent ceasefire”.

The Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, a UN-backed grouping intended to represent all the country’s different sides and regions, selects an interim government, promising elections by the end of the year.