Rwanda welcomes first group of African refugees from Libya

A group of 66 African refugees and asylum-seekers have arrived in Kigali from Libya, the UN said, the first of what could be thousands relocated from the north African country under a new program.

The move follows a pledge by President Paul Kagame in 2017 to offer a “home” to Africans after reports emerged of the torture, sexual violence and forced labor they suffer in Libya.

Earlier this month, Rwanda signed a deal with the African Union (AU) and the UN refugee agency UNHCR agreeing to take in African refugees and asylumseekers stranded in Libya.

The Rwandan government has said it is prepared to accommodate as many as 30,000 evacuees, although the plan is for the program to unfold in batches of 500 to prevent the country of 12 million from feeling overwhelmed.

“Just landed!” the UN refugee agency wrote on its Twitter account as a first group of unaccompanied minors, single mothers and families landed in the Rwandan capital late Thursday. The youngest passenger was a two-month-old girl born to Somali parents in Libya.

A UN official told AFP Wednesday that a subsequent flight carrying 125 people was planned for “between Oct. 10-12.”

They will be housed in a transit center in Rwanda before being resettled elsewhere unless they agree to return to their home countries.

“UNHCR will provide persons evacuated from Libya with shelter, education, food items, basic hygiene products and health care services,” Olivier Kayumba Rugina, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Emergency Management told AFP.