Mobile phones ordered in 2010 arrive 16 years later in Libya

They arrived quietly, as if ashamed of their own punctuality.

A mobile phone dealer in Tripoli, Libya, has finally received a shipment of Nokia phones he ordered back in 2010, after an astonishing 16-year delay.

The long-lost consignment, which included classic button-based Nokia models such as music-edition handsets and early “Communicator” devices once seen as premium tech, was stranded due to the 2011 Libyan civil war and the collapse of the country’s logistics and customs infrastructure.

Both the sender and the intended recipient were located just a few kilometres apart in Tripoli, yet the package lay forgotten in warehouses for more than a decade because of conflict and instability.

A video of the shopkeeper unboxing the decades-old phones has gone viral on social media.

In the clip, he laughs with friends and jokingly asks whether the devices are “phones or artefacts,” highlighting how far mobile technology has come since 2010.

The story has drawn both laughter and reflection online, with many users pointing out that the incident underscores how prolonged conflict can disrupt even everyday business operations.

Others have speculated that the now-vintage phones could have value as collectors’ items.

Wars are often measured in deaths and declarations. But sometimes, their truest measure is a delivery that takes sixteen years to arrive.

Libya remains divided between a UN-recognised Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east backed by General Khalifa Haftar and aligned with the House of Representatives in Benghazi. 

The split dates back to the 2011 NATO-backed revolt that toppled and killed long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi, which saw the country plunge into institutional chaos with no unified state.