Italian settlers in Libya terms of the 1947 peace treaty with the Allies, Italy relinquished all claims to Libya. On November 21, 1949, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution stating that Libya should become independent before January 1, 1952. On December 24, 1951, Libya declared its independence as the United Kingdom of Libya, a constitutional and hereditary monarchy. The Italian population virtually disappeared after the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ordered the expulsion of remaining Italians (about 20,000) in 1970. Only a few hundred of them have been allowed to return to Libya in the 2000s. On 30 August 2008, Gaddafi and Italian Prime
British military post offices in Africa declared that the remaining overprinted stamps were valid for postage throughout the UK, and so many of the surviving stamps have British inland rather than foreign postmarks. The East Africa Forces in Italian Somalia also received British stamps, but overprinted "E.A.F." instead, beginning 15 January 1943. From 1948 on, the military administrations in Eritrea, Somalia, and Tripolitania used their own overprints. British military post offices in Africa The British post offices in Africa were a system of post offices set up by the United Kingdom to be used by its Middle East Forces and East Africa Forces in Africa during