Realistic safety issues in Lybia?

This is gonna sound like a terrible idea regardless, but it also is an opportunity I probably won't get again.

Close friend of mine is lybian, and he wants me to come and visit his family over there some of whom I've met already,​ and see where he grew up. Obviously understand that at the minute it's a pretty risky venture, and even outside of the current war in the middle East that there's some risks involved.

With that being said, as he's explained it to me his family would be my "sponsor", we'd not be doing anything without them, they'd get approval from the authorities in eastern Lybia and would be doing the trip via his cousins tour company.

From what I understand legally I'd be fine, I'm not American and my country advises me not to go but there's no penalty for it. With that being said I don't exactly want to end up getting kidnapped, and he's pretty blasé about the risks involved. I don't know if that's because he understands they aren't as bad as I'm thinking, or if he's just unaware of them. He's not lived in lybia for over a decade.

Has anyone here recently travelled to that part of Africa and know what to expect? It's a pretty big event for him so I want to come, but at the same time I'm very much attached to my fingers and would prefer they remain that way.