Second Italo-Senussi War

It has been suggested that Libyan genocide be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2024.

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Second Italo-Senussi War
Part of the interwar period
Senussi rebel leader Omar Mukhtar (the man in traditional clothing with a chain on his left arm) after his arrest by Italian armed forces in 1931. Mukhtar was executed in a public hanging shortly afterward.
Date 26 January 1923 – 24 January 1932 Location Italian Tripolitania, Italian Cyrenaica Result Italian victory Defeat of the Cyrenaican and Tripolitanian rebels Stabilization of Italian rule in Libya Libyan genocide; mass deaths of Cyrenaican indigenous civilians[1] Execution of Senussi Cyrenaican rebel leader Omar Mukhtar
Belligerents
Italy	Senussi Order
Commanders and leaders
Benito Mussolini Rodolfo Graziani Pietro Badoglio	Omar al-Mukhtar  Yusuf Burahil  Fadil Bu Umar
Casualties and losses
	40,000–70,000 dead[2]

The Second Italo-Senussi War, also referred to as the Pacification of Libya, was a conflict that occurred during the Italian colonization of Libya between Italian military forces (composed of Italian and colonial troops from Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia)^[3] and indigenous rebels associated with the Senussi Order. The war lasted from 1923 until 1932,^[4][5][6] when the principal Senussi leader, Omar al-Mukhtar, was captured and executed.^[7] The Libyan genocide took place during and after the conflict.

Fighting took place in all three of Libya's provinces (Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica), but was most intense and prolonged in the mountainous Jebel Akhdar region of Cyrenaica.^[8] The war led to the mass deaths of the indigenous people of Cyrenaica, totalling one quarter of the region's population of 225,000.^[9] Italian war crimes included the use of chemical weapons, execution of surrendering combatants, and the mass killing of civilians,^[1] while the Senussis were accused of torture and mutilation of captured Italians and refusal to take prisoners since the late 1910s.^[10][11][12] Italian authorities forcibly expelled 100,000 Bedouin Cyrenaicans, half the population of Cyrenaica, from their settlements, many of which were then given to Italian settlers.^[13][14]