Beirut- Human Rights Watch reported that at least 130 people, most of them civilians, were killed by landmines and abandoned or unexploded ordnance in the southern suburbs of Tripoli, Libya, in addition to wounding 196 others, where most of the accidents occurred.
The organization said in a report today, Wednesday, that mines and ammunition in the south of the capital were planted during the withdrawal of the General Command forces with the help of (foreign fighters from Russia), while calling on the Libyan government and its international supporters to intensify efforts to remove mines and unexploded ordnance so far around the capital, Tripoli.
Hanan Salah, director of the Libya office at Human Rights Watch, said: “These mines and explosive devices planted during the period between April 2019 and June 2020 (killed and maimed hundreds of civilians, including children, and impeded the return of residents of the southern suburbs of Tripoli to their homes, individual planted anti-mines, that is prohibited because they indiscriminately kill civilians during combat and long after the conflict has ended)
The organization confirmed that the war that lasted from April 2019 to June 2020, between the forces of the General Command and the Russian “Wagner” group supporting them on the one hand, and the forces of the former Government of National Accord, also backed by foreign fighters, on the other hand, resulted in huge amounts of war remnants, Including unexploded ordnance, in all areas and southern neighborhoods of Tripoli.
A delegation from the organization had paid a working visit to Tripoli during the month of March of 2022, and met with officials of the Libyan Center for Mine Action and Remnants of War, affiliated to the Ministry of Defense. The delegation also met civilians displaced by the fighting in the neighborhoods of Ain Zara, Salah al-Din, and Qasr Bin Ghashir, and were unable to return home due to the danger of landmines and other explosive ordnance, then on April 20, the results of their research was sent to the Unity Government and the General Command, but received no response.
Source: Libyan News Agency