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Libya faces a serious security threat from foreign fighters and private military companies, especially Russia’s Wagner Group which has violated international law, UN experts said in a report obtained by The Associated Press. The experts also accused seven Libyan armed groups of systematically using unlawful detention to punish perceived opponents, ignoring international and domestic civil rights laws, including laws prohibiting torture. In particular, “migrants have been extremely vulnerable to human rights abuses and regularly subjected to acts of slavery, rape and torture,” the panel said in… Continue reading “Libya security threatened by Wagner Group: UN experts”

After the recent failure of Fathi Bashagha’s government to enter the capital – and their subsequent expulsion – many are concerned over what it will take to keep Libyans united. Some, however, foreshadowed this reality years ago. Shortly after the 2011 civil war, and the ousting of the then-leader Muammar Gaddafi, many in the eastern region of Cyrenaica started calling for a new federal regime. On the 6th of March 2012, the “Cyrenaican Transitional Council” issued a declaration of autonomy, but this move was quickly rejected by the National Transitional Council in Tripoli. The main arguments p… Continue reading “Can a federal system unite Libyans?”

MADRID (Reuters) -Britain’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace on Wednesday called on Russia to let Ukraine export its grain to help countries where grain scarcity could trigger hunger. Russia must “do the right thing”, Wallace told reporters in Madrid where he met his Spanish counterpart Margarita Robles, and open a grain corridor from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. On Thursday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said the country was ready to provide a humanitarian corridor for vessels carrying food to leave Ukraine, in return for the lifting of some sanctions, the Interfax news agency rep… Continue reading “Britain calls on Russia to let Ukraine export its grain”

More than 70 people are missing in the Mediterranean after a boat crowded with migrants headed for Europe from Libya sank off neighbouring Tunisia, the coastguard said on Wednesday. The boat, which was carrying around 100 people when it put to sea, capsized off the Tunisian port of Sfax, with coastguard and navy units able to pull 24 people out of the water, National Guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli said. “According to preliminary results of the investigation, an inflatable boat left the coast of Zawara in Libya on Sunday night with around 100 people on board,” he said, adding that so far… Continue reading “Over 70 migrants missing after boat sinks off Tunisia”

Four migrants were found dead and three were missing after their boat capsized off the Libyan coast, the North African country’s coast guard said Tuesday. The agency also rescued 13 migrants who had been shipwrecked as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, it said in a statement. “The rescued migrants were taken to the Mellitah landing point and handed to the competent authorities,” it said, adding steps would be taken to send them “back to their countries”. Twelve of the rescued migrants were Syrian, along with one Egyptian, a navy official told AFP. The nationalities of those who … Continue reading “Four migrants drown, three missing off Libya”