'Īs a result, entire informal neighbourhoods have sprung up in outlying areas zoned for farming, with no building permits and no masterplan. Gotrani, who supports a family with six children on a salary of just $130 a month, said that so far "there has been no state plan and no help to rebuild the areas that were destroyed". The city was the site of the 2012 attack that killed the US ambassador Christopher Stevens, and it saw more heavy fighting between 20 that pulverised large districts. We couldn't afford to pay rent, so we had to build a little house in an unplanned neighbourhood."īenghazi was the epicentre of the 2011 revolt that overthrew Muammar Qadhafi, sparking years of lawless chaos in Libya. "When the fighting stopped, we found our houses destroyed and uninhabitable. "We had to leave our homes in the city centre because of the war," said one Benghazi resident, Jalal Al Gotrani, a health ministry employee in the northeastern coastal city. The fighting has displaced countless families, forcing many to build new homes without permits in a jumble of unplanned neighbourhoods that often lack infrastructure, from proper roads to schools or sewerage systems.Īs the oil-rich but poverty-stricken North African country tries to stabilise and rebuild, authorities are scrambling to address the legacy of years without urban planning. BENGHAZI, Libya - Over a decade of war in Libya the second city Benghazi has mushroomed to twice its size, creating an unplanned and chaotic urban sprawl.