Libyan govt slams killing of 30 migrants

Libya’s UN-backed government vowed yesterday to bring those behind the killing of 30 migrants to justice and denounced the attack believed to have been carried out in revenge for the death of a human trafficker.

The Foreign Ministry said those behind this “gruesome massacre” will be held accountable and punished.

Thirty migrants — 26 Bangladeshi and four Africans — were killed this week when the family of an alleged human trafficker attacked a smuggling warehouse where the migrants were held.

Eleven people were also injured.

The trafficker was killed by migrants in his town of Mezda, southwest of the capital Tripoli, prompting his family to attack the migrants in revenge, the government said.

The UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said the attack took place on Wednesday in a smuggling warehouse in Mezda.

Libya descended into chaos since the 2011 revolt that toppled long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The country, torn between two rival administrations, has become a major transit route for migrants trying to enter Europe.

In 2020, nearly 4,000 people have been intercepted or rescued at sea and returned to Libya, the IOM said, adding that many of them were taken to unofficial detention centres.

The UN and rights groups have repeatedly warned that migrants detained in Libya risk torture, sexual abuse and human trafficking. “This senseless crime is a bleak reminder of the horrors migrants have to endure at the hands of smugglers and traffickers in Libya,”

said IOM Libya Chief of Mission Federico Soda, urging the government to launch an immediate investigation into the incident.

Russia’s foreign ministry said yesterday the situation in Libya was continuing to deteriorate and that a ceasefire there was in tatters, the RIA news agency reported.

The ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said outside help to players in the conflict had altered the balance of power on the ground in Libya, Reuters reported quoting the Interfax news agency.

Russia is in contact with all sides in the conflict and will insist the conflict is resolved through diplomatic means, she was cited as saying.