In Tripoli, a shipment of classic Nokia phones ordered in 2010 arrived after 16-year delay, highlighting Libya’s chaos, fueling retro-tech buzz among collectors.
© A. Krivonosov
A near-absurd yet revealing episode in Libya lays bare the long tail of instability. In Tripoli, a local mobile phone dealer unexpectedly received a shipment of Nokia handsets that had been ordered back in 2010. After the civil war erupted in 2011—upending infrastructure, freezing logistics and stalling customs—the consignment languished in a warehouse for 16 years before it finally reached its buyer.
Inside the boxes were classic keypad Nokias once seen as the pinnacle of mobile tech. The lot included music-oriented models and devices from the Nokia Communicator series, which in their day signaled status and a place in the business elite. Now hopelessly outdated, they prompted the shop owner to unbox them with a laugh, joking that what he held could just as well be museum pieces.
Adding to the irony, both the sender and the recipient are in the same city, separated by only a few kilometers. Yet the cargo needed 16 years to cover that short distance. Many link the extraordinary delay to the near-total breakdown of government and transport systems during the fighting—a reminder of how quickly everyday mechanisms fail when institutions falter.
Video of the unboxing spread quickly across social media and drew lively responses. Some, with evident bitterness, noted how profoundly war can derail ordinary life and commerce. Others saw unexpected commercial promise: with interest in retro electronics on the rise, such phones could find demand on the international collectors’ market. Users also joked that the absence of tracking modules makes these handsets especially appealing today, while some argued that selling them abroad might now bring in more than if they had been sold as intended back in 2010.
The scene feels like a time capsule pried open—proof that, after years of turmoil, even a short delivery can turn into a 16-year wait.