When the Arab spring reached Libya, Manchester resident Abdul Gargani could only connect to his home country, which he left in 1976, via al-Jazeera. He wanted to help oust Gaddafi but, at 57, he couldn't fight. Eventually, he settled on a plan. He taught himself to use eBay, and bought an ambulance for the rebels. "I wanted to be there," he says. "When we saw the news we wanted to go immediately. We didn't expect Gaddafi to last six months."
Gargani added things to the vehicle that he thought the rebels might find useful, such as a pair of binoculars ("my old ones, which I used for bird watching"). He then drove the ambulance – which he named Zayna after the daughter of the friend who accompanied him – to Genoa and then, via a 23-hour ferry trip, to Tunisia, finally crossing the border in to Libya.
On arrival, Gargani realised he had not planned his next move. But he soon made contact with the Red Crescent and handed the vehicle over, mainly to be used to transport wounded rebels.
As Gargani relaxes into his armchair, tales of his journey start tumbling out, such as the time he was asked to drive the ambulance through the hostilities himself: "I found myself going fast, like 60 or 70mph in a 30-mph area," he says with a smile, recalling the shells that fell around him. "This old man driving this old vehicle. It was a very nice feeling. Really lovely." It may sound like a strange reaction to being in a war zone but, says Gargani: "It was worse when I was stuck watching it on TV."
Gargani returned home to the UK from his mission, only to return to eBay and repeat the journey twice more; first with a much-needed four-wheel drive ambulance, and finally with a people carrier. All three vehicles were used extensively duing the fighting. And although the hostilities have ended, the vehicles remain in use today.
