Barka Warduko Al-Mahdi Murzuk died this evening following along struggle against leg gangrene despite receiving extensive treatment in the UAE over the last 12 months.
At the start of the 2011 Revolution Mahdi was one the earliest rebels in the south-west. He managed to quickly storm and control the strategic Waw Al-Namous army airbase on the Libyan-Chadian border and Al-Whigh airbase on the frontier with Niger.
Mahdi also overran a number of mostly Tebu villages in the south, Qatroun, Um Aranib and Murzuk and became the military commander of Murzuk.
In 2012 he played a key role in peace negotiations between Tebu and Awlad Suleiman fighters in Sebha and later that year between fighting Tebu and Zuwai militias in Kufra.
According to a Tebu source, Mahdi was admired for his strategic savvy coupled with his religious example to his fellow fighters.
It is unclear if he will be buried in the UAE or flown back to be buried in Murzuk nor is it clear how he contracted the gangrenous wound that eventually killed him.