Yafran /ˈjɑːfrən/ , also spelled Jefren, Yefren, Yifran, Yifrin or Ifrane, is a city in northwestern Libya, in the Jabal al Gharbi District in the western Nafusa Mountains. Before 2007, Yafran was the administrative seat of the Yafran District.
History
Libyan civil war
Main article: 2011 Nafusa Mountains Campaign
Yafran people, as in other cities of Libya, have demonstrated against Gaddafi. Subsequently, Yafran was exposed to bombardment and siege by Gaddafi forces. As of May 2011, Gaddafi's forces had shut down the water system and blocked food supplies2 and held the western part of the town with some 500 rebels in the eastern section of Yafran still resisting.3
Yafran fell to Gaddafi's forces sometime in late May or early June. The centre of the town was used as a position for "government tanks, artillery guns and snipers".4 On 2 June, rebel forces retook the city center and started to clear the area of Gaddafi's forces.5 On 6 June, an on-site Reuters journalist reported that the pro-Gaddafi forces were nowhere to be seen in or around the town.6
Jewish community
Yafran had a deep-rooted Jewish history dating back to antiquity. According to chronicler Mordehai HaCohen (1856–1929), a local tradition holds that the Jewish community there originated after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, when generals under Titus allegedly sold 30,000 Jewish captives to Bedouins in Yafran.7
The local Jewish population flourished under Ottoman rule. During the Italian occupation of Libya in 1910–1922, they suffered persecution by the local Arab population; some of them fled to Tripoli.8
During World War II, Jews from Cyrenaica were brought to labor camps in Yafran; some Jews were later deported to the Giado concentration camp.9 After the Tripolitania riots in 1945, most of the Jewish population moved to Tripoli and eventually emigrated to Israel in the 1950s.10
Climate
Yafran has a semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSh) with hot, dry summers and cool, somewhat rainy winters.
| Climate data for Yafran (1991–2020) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 25.0(77.0) | 30.7(87.3) | 33.5(92.3) | 37.8(100.0) | 40.8(105.4) | 42.0(107.6) | 43.0(109.4) | 42.5(108.5) | 40.5(104.9) | 38.5(101.3) | 34.6(94.3) | 27.0(80.6) | 43.0(109.4) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 13.0(55.4) | 14.7(58.5) | 18.7(65.7) | 23.3(73.9) | 28.0(82.4) | 32.0(89.6) | 33.8(92.8) | 33.8(92.8) | 30.9(87.6) | 26.0(78.8) | 19.4(66.9) | 14.2(57.6) | 24.0(75.2) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 10.1(50.2) | 11.2(52.2) | 14.4(57.9) | 18.3(64.9) | 22.6(72.7) | 26.8(80.2) | 28.2(82.8) | 28.5(83.3) | 26.0(78.8) | 21.9(71.4) | 16.0(60.8) | 11.3(52.3) | 19.6(67.3) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 7.2(45.0) | 7.7(45.9) | 10.2(50.4) | 13.3(55.9) | 17.3(63.1) | 20.9(69.6) | 22.7(72.9) | 23.2(73.8) | 21.1(70.0) | 17.8(64.0) | 12.5(54.5) | 8.5(47.3) | 15.2(59.4) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −8.0(17.6) | −9.5(14.9) | −6.5(20.3) | −4.9(23.2) | 2.1(35.8) | 5.6(42.1) | 9.2(48.6) | 10.0(50.0) | 8.6(47.5) | 4.6(40.3) | −1.8(28.8) | −3.4(25.9) | −9.5(14.9) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 52.4(2.06) | 47.0(1.85) | 35.0(1.38) | 12.9(0.51) | 8.6(0.34) | 2.8(0.11) | 0.3(0.01) | 1.3(0.05) | 7.1(0.28) | 25.3(1.00) | 20.7(0.81) | 44.0(1.73) | 257.4(10.13) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 1 mm) | 4.3 | 4.1 | 3.2 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 4.6 | 25.8 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 65.4 | 60.2 | 53.9 | 48.9 | 45.1 | 43.2 | 44.4 | 46.1 | 53.4 | 56.6 | 59.1 | 65.0 | 53.4 |
| Average dew point °C (°F) | 2.8(37.0) | 2.2(36.0) | 3.6(38.5) | 5.7(42.3) | 8.2(46.8) | 10.9(51.6) | 13.2(55.8) | 14.2(57.6) | 14.2(57.6) | 11.2(52.2) | 6.7(44.1) | 4.0(39.2) | 8.1(46.6) |
| Source: NOAA11 | |||||||||||||
See also
Notes
External links
- "Yafran, Libya", Falling Rain Genomics, Inc.
- "Yafran Map — Satellite Images of Yafran", Maplandia
32°03′46″N 12°31′36″E / 32.0629°N 12.5267°E / 32.0629; 12.5267
References
" مدينةيفرن" ("Yafran District") Website of the General People's Committee of Libya, from Internet Archive dated 18 April 2006, in Arabic https://web.archive.org/web/20060418033049/http://www.gpc.gov.ly/online_alshabyat/index.php?sh=25 ↩
People of Yafran, besieged by pro-Gaddafi forces, facing starvation | Libya TV http://english.libya.tv/2011/05/02/people-of-yafran-besieged-by-gaddafi-forces-facing-starvation/ ↩
"Libyan begs NATO to save his small town". CNN. Archived from the original on 2020-10-03. http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/05/21/libya.small.towns/index.html?section=cnn_latest ↩
Boudreaux, Richard (1 June 2011). "Conflict Hardens in Libya's Mountains". The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304563104576357122791161478 ↩
Rebels in western Libya seize mountain towns in push toward Tripoli « Shabab Libya http://shabablibya.org/news/rebels-in-western-libya-seize-mountain-towns-in-push-toward-tripoli ↩
Al Jazeera, Libya Live Blog, June 6 http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya ↩
Roumani, Maurice (2010). Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World Online. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1878-9781_ejiw_SIM_0022300 ↩
Roumani, Maurice (2010). Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World Online. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1878-9781_ejiw_SIM_0022300 ↩
Roumani, Maurice (2010). Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World Online. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1878-9781_ejiw_SIM_0022300 ↩
Roumani, Maurice (2010). Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World Online. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1878-9781_ejiw_SIM_0022300 ↩
"Yefren Climate Normals 1991–2020". World Meteorological Organization Climatological Standard Normals (1991–2020). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived from the original on 15 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230915043406/https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/archive/arc0216/0253808/1.1/data/0-data/Region-1-WMO-Normals-9120/Libya/CSV/YEFREN_62008.csv ↩