The Libu are an ancient Berber tribe, from which the name Libya derives.Their occupation of ancient Libya is first attested in ancient Egyptian texts from the New Kingdom, especially from the Ramesside Period.

The earliest occurrence is in a Ramses II inscription.

There are no vowels in the Egyptian script.

The name Libu is written as LBW or RBW in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

In the Great Karnak Inscription, Merneptah describes how hostilities between Egypt and Libya broke out and how the Libyans were defeated.

Ramses III defeated the Libyans in the 5th year of his reign, but six years later the Libyans joined the Meshwesh and invaded the western Delta and were defeated again.

Libu appears as an ethnic name on the Merneptah Stele, also known as the Israel Stele.

Afterward, the name appears repeatedly in other pharaonic records.The name Libu is taken over by the Greeks of Cyrenaica, who coexisted with them.

[ Geographically, the name of this tribe is adopted by the Greeks for "Cyrenaica" as well as for northwestern Africa in general.

Laguatan was the name later Roman authors used to refer to the nomadic tribes in the Cyrenaica area.

They have been described as primarily raiders and nomadic, but others consider them a settled group who also raided.