Kufra

The folk etymology associates the word "Kufra" as coming from the Arabic word kafir (كافر), meaning "disbeliever" or "infidel". The term kafir originates from the Arabic root K-F-R, which means "to cover" or "to conceal." In Islamic theology, it refers to someone who denies or conceals the truth of Islam, with reference to the Toubou people native to the region.Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs, Kufra: Reise von Tripolis nach der Oase Kufra, ausgeführt im Auftrage der Afrikanischen Gesellschaft in Deutschland (Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1881), 266 and 267. https://archive.org/details/kufrareisevontri00rohl/page/266/mode/2up

The association of the term Kufra stems from the early 19th-century context, marked by Arab-initiated tribal conflict and territorial expansion in southern Cyrenaica. Arab tribes—primarily the Zuwayya and Jawabis—sought to assert control over the region’s most fertile oases, a core area of Toubou settlement.Wahli, S. H. (2022, October 7). الواحات التباوية السوداء.. جنوب برقة الليبية- إقليم توزر [The Black Toubou Oases: Southern Barqa of Libya – The Tozeur Region]. Studies and Research in History, Heritage, and Languages. https://m.ahewar.org/s.asp?aid=770715&r=0&cid=0&u=&i=10076&q=

Contemporary accounts, such as those by the German explorer Friedrich Hornemann (1772–1801), who crossed the Libyan Desert in 1798, document the early invasions into Toubou-controlled territory. Hornemann refers to expeditions launched from Benghazi and Awjila, which was a repeated pattern of invasions towards the area he identified as Febabo—modern-day Kufra (also known as al-Jawf). The first Arab invasions, carried out by the Jawazi tribes from northern Cyrenaica in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, were met with local resistance and ultimately repelled.Hornemann, Frederick. The Journal of Frederick Hornemann's Travels from Cairo to Mourzouk... in the Years 1797–8. London: W. Bulmer and Co., 1802. line 118 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/71426/71426-h/71426-h.htm.

A pivotal moment occurred in 1808, during the rule of Yusuf Karamanli, Pasha of Tripoli. After facing strong local resistance, Arab tribes sought military aid from the Ottoman authorities. In response, they were supplied with firearms and troops, leading to the occupation of the Kufra region—one of the Toubou's strongholds—by the Zuwayya and their allies. These military campaigns reportedly resulted in significant casualties among the native Toubou (Goran) and Zaghawa populations and many were forced migrate from the region. However, Kufra never fully came under the dominion of either the Arabs or the Ottomans. During this period, Arab forces referred to the Toubou as kuffar (the plural of kafir, meaning “disbelievers”), a term employed in military rhetoric and campaign slogans. Thus, it became associated with the region itself, ultimately giving rise to the toponym Kufra.

The broader region came to be known as Kufra, with al-Jawf frequently referred to by the same name, serving as both its administrative and geographic center. Historically, southern Cyrenaica was known in prehistoric times for its fertility and verdant landscape. In the Toubou language, it was called Tazer, meaning “greenland,” a term also applied specifically to al-Jawf (Kufra). Over time, the toponym Febabo came into use for the al-Jawf oasis, meaning “the one with the grand pits” in the Toubou language.

The region was also referenced by Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs (1831–1896) in 1879, who referred to the site as Kebabo. Rohlfs speculated that Hornemann had misspelled the name and incorrectly assumed it was derived from the Arabic Kufra. This was inaccurate. The name Febabo appears in several historical cartographic records as Kebabo, which is also incorrect. However, it has been misspelled even by the native scholars, despite its accurate meaning having been properly explained—leading to the continued use of Kebabo instead of the original Febabo.

Rohlfs further observed that the area was part of the ancient ancestral seat of the Garamantes. He noted, however, that he did not have the opportunity to consult directly with Toubou regarding the deeper historical context of the region. Furthermore, he reported that the Zuwayya were reluctant to disclose information about the earlier history of the Toubou in Kufra and kept it as very secretive. Because he did not ask the Toubou, he did not know the meaning of Febabo, despite it being a relatively simple and straightforward word.Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs, Kufra: Reise von Tripolis nach der Oase Kufra, ausgeführt im Auftrage der Afrikanischen Gesellschaft in Deutschland (Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1881), p. 333 https://archive.org/details/kufrareisevontri00rohl/page/332/mode/2up According to local accounts, the Zuwayya destroyed ancient Toubou sites in an attempt to erase their historical presence from the region—an action that further corresponds with Rohlfs' observations.

Similarly, Hornemann recorded accounts from the people of Awjila—primarily Berbers—who described Febabou (Kufra) as a ten-day journey from their settlement. These are the same people, from the same place who are the Nasamones, who clearly provided geographic descriptions and oral accounts to the Greek historian Herodotus. (c. 484–425 BCE), offering early insights into the region's geography, which has led many travelers to become confused. Concerning the Garamantes, Herodotus' descriptions are contradictory, raising critical questions about the reliability of his ethnographic accounts. These inconsistencies in Herodotus's portrayal of the Garamantes challenge the accuracy of his claims and suggest a need for further investigation into the region's true historical context.

The term Garama–ntes, recorded by Herodotus, has meaning and it is deep rooted in Toubou which means litterally “the sons of the speakers of the Ga language,” with Ga being as a unifying designation for the Toubou language (Dazaga-Tedaga). The Toubou people continue to refer to themselves as Ga people and to their language as Ga, reflecting a longstanding linguistic and cultural identity that underscores their cohesion as a single people. The Toubou are also known as Goran, a name that is still in use today particularly in Sudan. In fact, these names are used interchangeably in the Tubu world, just like the ancient names Tehenu and Temehu, which the ancient Egyptians used to refer to the same people. It is attributed to them through their ancestors, the Garamantes—Garama–nte—Herodotus derived their name from their city of Garama, (also known as Germa but locally pronounced as Jarma). Over time, the term was distorted by Arabic speakers, who altered the original -ma ending to -an. In the Toubou language, ma means “sons”. The Garamantes' forebears are the Tehenu and Temehu, the ancient Libyan groups mentioned in early Egyptian records. In the Toubou language, the names Tehenu and Temehu literally mean “people of the southern land” and “people of the eastern land,” respectively. The correct pronunciation of Tehenu as Tuhunu is derived from Tu meaning "land" and hunu derived from anou meaning "south," while Temehu as Tumuhu combines Tu meaning "land" and muhu meaning "east". Wherever the Toubou (Goran) originated, the Zaghawa also came from the same place. Since the dawn of history, people have lived in groups, and the Zaghawa lived alongside the Toubou, sharing many common origins. The name Toubou is constructed similarly to that of their ancestors, with Tu meaning “land” and Bu meaning “grand,” “great,” or simply “big.” Together, the name means “Grand Land,” referring to their entire homeland that includes Libya, Chad, Sudan, Niger and beyond—essentially meaning “people of the great land” or “people of the grand homeland". The history of Black people in North Africa—from Egypt to Morocco—has frequently been manipulated. Much like the case of ancient Egypt, the histories of Black people in Libya have been systematically distorted, marginalized, or erased—especially the history of the Toubou people and their ancestors. Their heritage has often been misrepresented, hidden, or distorted, particularly by Western or White writers intent on obscuring the truth. Likewise, the “Barbarians”—have exploited false information and perpetuated biased or inaccurate narratives rooted in misinformation. They knowingly mislead the uninformed public about the identities of the Tehenu (Temehu) and Garamantes, and their claims are not only misleading but transparently opportunistic.

Kufra is an elliptic shaped basin, oriented northeast-southwest. The major axis is {{convert|50|km|abbr=on}}, the minor {{convert|20|km|abbr=on}} long. It is bordered by hills which are at most 100 m high. The soil consists of red marl or sand and in the lowest parts there are salt lakes or dried salines.

In the basin lie the following oases:

• Al Jawf ("Center"), the largest, situated at the northeast end of the basin, {{convert|5|km|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|2|-|3|km|abbr=on}} wide. It is rich with palms and gardens.
• Buma and Buema, both small and situated to the east of Al Jawf. Gerhard Rohlfs set his camp north of Buema, and since then the locality is known as "Garet-en-Nasrani" ("Field of the Christian" in Arabic). Kufra Airport is located in Buma.
• Ez-Zurgh, situated {{convert|4|km|abbr=on}} to the south of Al Jawf. It consists of a line of Palm trees. Until the Italian occupation it was inhabited only by slaves.
• Et-Tleilíb and Et-Talláb, both situated to the southwest of Al Jawf. The latter is the farthest from Al Jawf, lying {{convert|20|km|abbr=on}} away.

On the north edge of the basin, there is the village of El Tag, which means crown in Arabic, which does not contain an oasis.Bertarelli (1929), p. 515. It was founded by Sayyid Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi, the son of the founder of the Senussi order, when he moved to Kufra and is considered the holy place of Senussi.

Kufra has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification: BWh).

{{Weather box

|location = Kufra, Libya (Altitude: {{Convert|435|m|ft|0|disp=or|abbr=on}})

|metric first = yes

|single line = yes

|Jan high C = 21.0

|Feb high C = 23.0

|Mar high C = 28.0

|Apr high C = 33.0

|May high C = 37.0

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|Aug high C = 38.0

|Sep high C = 35.0

|Oct high C = 32.0

|Nov high C = 27.0

|Dec high C = 22.0

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|Feb mean C = 15.0

|Mar mean C = 19.5

|Apr mean C = 24.0

|May mean C = 28.5

|Jun mean C = 30.5

|Jul mean C = 30.5

|Aug mean C = 30.5

|Sep mean C = 27.5

|Oct mean C = 24.5

|Nov mean C = 19.0

|Dec mean C = 14.0

|Jan low C = 5.0

|Feb low C = 7.0

|Mar low C = 11.0

|Apr low C = 15.0

|May low C = 20.0

|Jun low C = 22.0

|Jul low C = 23.0

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|Sep low C = 20.0

|Oct low C = 17.0

|Nov low C = 11.0

|Dec low C = 6.0

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|source 1 = Climatemps.com{{cite web|title=Kufra Climate & Temperature|url=http://www.kufra.climatemps.com/|publisher=Climatemps.com|access-date=30 December 2014}}

|date=December 2014

}}

Claudius Ptolemy wrote that around 90 AD Julius Maternus (or Matiernus) carried out a mainly commercial expedition. From the Sirte gulf he reached the Oasis of Cufra and the Oasis of Archei, then arrived, after 4 months travelling with the king of the Garamantes, to the river Bahr Salamat and Bahr Aouk, near modern-day Central African Republic in a region then called Agisymba.[http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/agisymba-e108180 Agisymba and Maternus]

In 1154 al-Idrisi described a place identified by Lewicki as the oasis of Kufra. Al Idrisi writes that the place was once flourishing and peopled, but was by that point in ruin, its wells dry, its herds returned to the wild.N. Levtzion & J.F.P. Hopkins, Corpus of early Arabic sources for West African history, Cambridge University Press, 1981, {{ISBN|0-521-22422-5}}, page 125. In the late 15th century, Leo Africanus reported an oasis in the land of the Berdoa, visited by a caravan coming from Awjila. It is possible that this oasis was identical with either the Al Jawf (Kufra) or the Tazirbu oasis, and on early modern maps, the Al Kufra region was often labelled as Berdoa based on this report. Berdoa possibly corresponded to the Toubou, a Nilo-Saharan speaking tribal people indigenous to the region.

File:AFR V2 D046 The Kufra oasis.jpg

The territory of Kufra was first explored by Westerners beginning with the 1873/74 expedition by German Gerhard Rohlfs.{{cite web|url=http://www.fjexpeditions.com/desert/history/expeditions/expeditions.htm|title=The exploration of the Libyan Desert|website=www.fjexpeditions.com}}[http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2000/494/chrncls.htm Al-Ahram Weekly, Man of the Desert. 10 August 2000] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090807133939/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2000/494/chrncls.htm |date=7 August 2009 }}- about Ahmed HassaneinRohlfs G. 1875. Drei Monate in der libyschen Wüste. Cassel: Verlag von Theodor Fischer, 340 p.
Rare; reprinted as {{ISBN|3-927688-10-X}}. Rohlfs accompanied by Paul Friedrich August Ascherson and others. Rohlfs reportedly first reached the oasis from the north in 1879.{{cite journal|date=January 19, 1882|journal=Nature|volume=25|page=264|doi=10.1038/025264a0 |title=Kufra Reise von Tripolis nach der Oase Kufra |issue=638|bibcode=1882Natur..25Q.264.|s2cid=4028949}} Review of Rohlfs,1881.

Kufra was an important trade and travelling route for various nomadic desert people. In 1895 seeking greater independence the Senussi relocated from Jaghbub, making the oasis their main centre.Bertarelli (1929), p. 419. However, the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II twice sent his aide-de-camp Azmzade Sadik El Mueyyed to meet Sheikh Senussi to cultivate positive relations and counter the West European scramble for Africa (see Azmzade 2021). After that, Westerners could no longer visit it until the First World War, when several soldiers of the Entente were held prisoner there.

In 1929, the Sanusi center of Kufra in the Sahara was pointed out as a center of the Trans-Saharan slave trade.Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 120

In 1931, during the campaign of Cyrenaica, General Rodolfo Graziani easily conquered Kufra, considered a strategic region, leading about 3,000 soldiers from infantry and artillery, supported by about twenty bombers.

Many refugees fled the Italian conquest eastwards via Uweinat into Egypt. The British explorer Pat Clayton, engaged in mapping areas of previously unmapped desert, encountered the Kufra refugees when running triangulation from Wadi Halfa to Uweinat, and helped save many from death in the arid desert.

File:Graziani_and_Amedeo_d'Aosta_enter_Kufra.jpg and Amedeo D'Aosta's troops in Kufra, 1931]]

The Frankfurter Zeitung reporter and author Muhammad Asad interviewed a man from Kufra after its seizure by the Italians in his book The Road to Mecca. According to Asad's source, the Italians attacked from three sides, with armored cars, artillery, and aircraft. The defenders, a few hundred men with only small arms unable to penetrate the Italian armor, defended the place house-to-house but were overwhelmed. The Italians (and their Eritrean auxiliaries) then raped the women, tore up a Koran and cast it on the ground, cut down the palm trees, burnt Sayyid Ahmad's library, and took some of the elders and scholars and hurled them to their death from airplanes. {{citation needed|date=July 2024}}

In the following years the Italians built an airfield (now Kufra Airport) in Buma oasis and a fort in El Tag, which dominated the area.

Buma airport was equipped with a radio-centre for flight assistance and was often used as a stop for routes toward Asmara and Italian East Africa. The fort was also used as a radio post to guide in Italian aircraft as well as to maintain communication with Italian East Africa.

Kufra grew in importance when the Second World War started and, after the Suez Canal was closed to Italian shipping, connections with Italian East Africa became mainly aerial, using Kufra and its strategic location.

Kufra, due to its key role for the Italian Royal Army, soon became a target for the Allies, with Free France and British desert troops beginning a long battle for its conquest. On 31 January 1941 Pat Clayton, an explorer recruited by British Intelligence, was captured by the Italian Auto-Saharan Company near Jebel Sherif, when leading "T" Patrol in reconnaissance of the planned attack on Kufra.

The Free French from Chad, with General Leclerc leading a combined force of Free French and Chadian native troops, attacked and took Kufra in the Battle of Kufra.

In later stages of the Western Desert Campaign, Kufra was used as a staging post for Allied units such as the Long Range Desert Group and the Special Air Service.

In May 1942 it was a location of the Tragedy at Kufra, where three South African Air Force Bristol Blenheim aircraft became lost and after landing safely the crews subsequently died due to lack of water.

After the Axis were expelled from North Africa, and when after the war it became part of independent Libya, the Buma airfield at Kufra was used little and fell into disrepair. The town surrounding the oasis is still dominated by the old fort of El Tag, built by the Italians in the mid-1930s.

On 26 August 2008, a hijacked Sudanese Boeing 737 landed at Kufra Airport after having departed from Nyala Airport, Darfur, for Khartoum.Staff (27 August 2008) [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/aug/27/sudan "Sudan plane hijackers surrender freeing all passengers"] The Guardian Earlier, Egyptian authorities had refused to allow the plane to land in their national capital, Cairo.Staff (27 August 2008) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7584675.stm "Sudan plane hijackers surrender"] BBC News

In recent decades, Kufra has become a major point on the route of African migrants who try to reach Europe by various routes, and some of whom get incarcerated in Kufra's notorious prison.

During the 2011 Libyan Civil War, the area was reported to be under control of anti-Gaddafi forces and not the government of Muammar Gaddafi on 2 April 2011.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}} On 28 April 2011, loyalist forces reportedly re-captured Kufra. There were no reports of casualties in the fighting for the town after the rebels put up only light resistance.{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13223197 | work=BBC News | title=Libya: Nato strike 'kills rebels' in Misrata | date=28 April 2011}} By 6 May 2011 the town had been retaken by the Libyan rebels.{{cite web |url=http://archive.libyafeb17.com/2011/05/may-6th-updates/ |title=Archived copy |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107075532/http://archive.libyafeb17.com/2011/05/may-6th-updates/ |archive-date=2014-11-07 |url-status=usurped }} In February 2012, fighting between the Tobu and Zuwayya tribes killed over a hundred people and the town became a focal point for mass human rights violations of refugees and migrants.{{cite web|url=https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2017/03/insecurity-and-governance-challenges-in-southern-libya?lang=en|title=Insecurity and Governance Challenges in Southern Libya|first1=Frederic|last1=Wehrey|website=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace}}

Kufra is situated in the middle of the Sahara for its pristine desert beauty, so that tours to the oasis are organized by local tour operators.

Migrants coming from the East African coast and the Near East pass through and compulsorily stop in Kufra. It is a little village of transit along the traditional route between Khartoum and the coastal Libyan towns, which has lately turned to be a spot gathering Libyan-Sudanese criminal organizations involved in the illegal transport of immigrants, police officers controlling the boundaries and the need of people working in local productive activities.

The village of Kufra has long been suspected and accused by European Parliamentary delegations as being criminally instrumental in assisting migrants. In 2007, they defined Kufra as "a free zone, a sort of starting Centre of Temporary Permanence CPT against the law... These gathering centres are places, in which the first contacts with the criminal organizations occur. Such organizations promote the "journey of hope", with a flexible handling of the Migrants' African routes according to the restriction policies adopted by the various governments. The minds of the criminal organizations act accordingly to what happens in each country: if Morocco stresses its restrain policies, the routes move towards the Canary Islands, if the controls in Libya increase, the streams are diverted towards Malta. When the migratory stream is over, the routes are back on Libya and Tunisia.""Limes" 4, 2007: 158. Original quote in Italian: {{lang|it|...una zona franca, una sorta di CPT di partenza, fuori dalla sovranità della legge... È in questi centri di raccolta che avvengono i primi contatti tra le organizzazioni criminali che promuovono il "viaggio della speranza", con una gestione flessibile delle rotte in rapporto agli indirizzi di contrasto dei diversi governi. I cervelli delle organizzazioni criminali analizzano quanto accade nei singoli paesi e agiscono di conseguenza: se si accentua la repressione in Marocco, le rotte si spostano sulle Canarie, se si intensificano i controlli sulla Libia, si dirottano i flussi su Malta; passata l’ondata, si ritorna in Libia o in Tunisia.}}

The {{convert|1500|km|mi|adj=mid|-long}} route towards the coastal Libyan towns is done at night on covered trucks. Such journey conditions are described as "hellish". People are often stopped by the police and therefore the route is covered many times in both directions. Once the migrants arrive, or are brought back, in Kufra, the only way to escape this situation is to pay people traders, which are often colluded with the police officers. People brought back to the Sudanese border may reverse the course just with cash money. Hence the occurrence of continuous exploitation, enlistment in the work and prostitution black market, painful waiting for a money order urged by relatives and friends through mobile phone communications, which are allowed only for this aim.

In 2005 Italy allocated funds for the creation of a detention camp at Kufra.Andrijasevic, Rutvica (2006) [http://www.statewatch.org/news/2006/may/andrijasevic-Libya-Lampedusa.pdf "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.

Kufra jail is defined"Mamadou va a morire"; testimonianze registrate da Gabriele Del Grande, 2007, pp. 126–127. Original quotes in Italian:

• ...un luogo di morte. Quando senti il rumore delle chiavi nella serratura della cella ti si gela il sangue. Devi voltarti verso il muro. Se li guardi negli occhi ti riempiono di botte. (Daniel, 22 anni, eritreo)
• Eravamo almeno 700, circa 100 etiopi, 200 eritrei e 400 da Chad e Sudan. Dormivamo per terra, uno sull’altro, non c’era nemmeno il posto per sdraiarsi. Pranzo unico: un pugno di riso bianco per tutta la giornata, 20 grammi a testa. C’erano anche delle baguette, ma per quelle bisognava pagare... (un ex-colonnello dell’esercito eritreo rifugiato politico in Italia)
• Io quando ho visto Cufra volevo impiccarmi. Mi avevano portato via il cellulare e tutti i soldi che avevo in tasca e mi avevano sbattuto in cella con altre 20 persone. Non ti dico lo sporco, la fame, le umiliazioni continue. C’erano anche delle celle per le donne e bambini. Le tenevano a parte. Le donne non te lo diranno mai per vergogna, ma è bene che si sappia quello che fanno alle donne a Cufra. Le stupravano davanti ai mariti, ai fratelli. Usavano ferri, bastoni... E’ vergognoso. Ci trattavano come bestie. (Yakob, un altro ragazzo eritreo.) by Ethiopian and Eritrean migrants, who stayed there, as:

{{blockquote|...a place of death. When you hear the sound of the keys in the cell lock your blood freezes. You have to turn towards the wall. If you look them in the eyes, they beat you repeatedly. (Daniel, 22 years old, from Eritrea)}}

{{blockquote|We were about 700 people, about 100 Ethiopians, 200 Eritreans and 400 from Chad and Sudan. We slept on the floor, one on the other, there wasn't even a place to lay down. For lunch: a fist of white rice for the all day, less than 570 grams each. There were also some baguettes, but you needed money to get them... (an ex-colonel of the Eritrean army, political refugee in Italy)}}

{{blockquote|When I saw Kufra I wanted to hitch up. They took my mobile phone and all the money I had in my pocket and put me in to a cell with other 20 people. There is no need in telling you about the dirt, hunger and continuous humiliations. There were also cells for women and children. They were kept separated from us. Women won't ever tell the truth because of shame, but it's useful to make everybody aware of what happened to women in Kufra. They were raped in front of their husbands, their brothers. They used pieces of iron, sticks... It's shameful. They treated us like beasts. (Yakob, another boy from Eritrea)}}

File:Kufra SPOT 1301.jpg seen from the SPOT 5 satellite]]

File:Kufra Oasis.jpg

At the beginning of the 1970s, Libya launched a great cultivation project in Kufra aimed at developing agriculture in the desert. LEPA irrigation is provided by fossil water beneath the ground surface, the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System, a non-renewable source and the only accessible water resource in the area. Rotors (high sprinkler that rotates) provide irrigation and the obtained circles have a diameter of about 1 km and can be observed from space.

This is one of Libya's largest agricultural projects. Because only about two percent of Libya's land receives enough rainfall to be cultivated, this project uses the underground aquifer. The green circles in the desert frequently indicate tracts of agriculture supported by center-pivot irrigation. The agricultural project is an easy-to-recognize landmark for orbiting astronauts aboard the International Space Station.{{cite web | url=http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16729 | archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20050906035233/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16729 | url-status=dead | archive-date=2005-09-06 | title=Green Circles—Al Khufrah Oasis, Libya | publisher=NASA Earth Observatory | access-date=2006-05-18}} The Libyan government also has a project called the Great Manmade River to pump and transport these groundwater reserves to the coast to support Libya's growing population and industrial development. As of December 2011, the excessive exploitation of the aquifer has provoked the complete drying up of the lake in the oasis.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/science/rare-krypton-81-isotope-helps-track-water-in-ancient-nubian-aquifer.html|title=A Rare Isotope Helps Track an Ancient Water Source|work =The New York Times |access-date=2011-12-05|first=Felicity|last=Barringer|date=21 November 2011}}

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{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|last=Azmzade, Gokkent, Osmansoy, Senusi|author-link= Azmzade, Gokkent, Senusi, Osmansoy|title=Journey in the Grand Sahara of Africa and Through Time|publisher=Gokkent|year=2021|isbn=9781737129882}}
• {{cite book |last=Bertarelli |first=L.V. |title=Guida d'Italia, Vol. XVII |publisher=Consociazione Turistica Italiana|location=Milano |year=1929|language=it}}

• Information about [http://www.battlefront.co.nz/Article.asp?ArticleID==465 the Battle for Kufra]
• (DE) [http://libyen.com/Wirtschaft/Gruene-Wueste-Das-Kufra-Projekt Kufra Project]
• (DE) [http://www.scinexx.de/index.php?cmd=focus_detail2&f_id=67&rang=18 Green Desert, Kufra Project]

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{{National Parks of Libya}}

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Category:Populated places in Kufra District

Category:Oases of Libya

Category:Cyrenaica

Category:Protected areas of Libya

Category:Baladiyat of Libya

Category:Libya in World War II