More than 120,000 people are trapped inside the eastern Libyan city of Derna by heavy fighting between Islamists and forces commanded by General Khalifa Haftar.A U.N. report Thursday said Derna had suffered through “unprecedented” violence over the pas…
Month: May 2018
Nigerian Activists Warn of Human Trafficking Danger
MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA, When night falls in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the human traffickers enter the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.People come there in the evening for recruiting, I can say, taking young girls, going away with them. I see…
Flood-Stricken Somalia Needs More Aid to Avert Humanitarian Crisis
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, The World Food Program is calling for stronger international support for hundreds of thousands of Somalis impacted by some of the heaviest rains to hit their country in three decades. The rainfall that began last month has caused w…
LIBYAN LEADERS AGREE TO HOLD PARLIAMENTARY, PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS ON DEC 10
PARIS, Four Libyan leaders who met in Paris Tuesday in the United Nations-sponsored International Conference on Libya have agreed to work together to holdparliamentary and presidential elections in their country on Dec 10.In a statement read out at the…
African Migrants Report Torture, Slavery in Algeria
DAKAR, Dozens of Africans say they were sold for labor and trapped in slavery in Algeria in what aid agencies fear may be a widening trend of abusing migrants headed for a new life in Europe.Algerian authorities could not be reached for comment and sev…
LIBYAN LEADERS COMMIT TO DECEMBER 10 ELECTIONS: STATEMENT
PARIS, Four senior Libyan leaders committed at a Paris peace conference yesterday to holding elections in the country on December 10, a joint statement said. “The parties have committed to set the constitutional basis for elections and adopt the necess…
US Supreme Court Has Yet to Rule on Gay Rights, Travel Ban
The U.S. Supreme Court is entering the last month of its 2017-2018 session. All the cases before the top U.S. court have been argued; only decisions remain to be handed down, including for major issues such as gay rights, abortion, President Donald Tru…
SCEPTICISM AS FRANCE CONVENES LIBYA PEACE CONFERENCE
PARIS, Rival Libyan leaders vying for influence in the fractured and war-scarred country meet in Paris on Tuesday (May 29) for a major peace conference seen as a risky French-backed push for a political settlement in the country.Many analysts are scept…
VOA Speaks to Malian Migrant Who Rescued Child from Paris Balcony
A Malian migrant who came to France illegally is being dubbed “Spider-Man” and hailed as a hero after scaling a Paris apartment building to save a young boy dangling perilously from a fourth-floor balcony.Modibo Dembele of VOA’s Bambara service spoke b…
LIBYAN ARMY ANNOUNCES MAXIMUM SECURITY ALERT IN OIL CRESCENT REGION
TRIPOLI, Libya’s eastern-based army announced maximum security alert over possible terrorist attacks on oil ports and fields.The information office of the army’s gulf military zone said in a statement that an order to raise security alert was issued to…