Beirut — Independent Investigation Needed; Prioritize Reconstruction An independent inquiry is needed to review failings in Libyan authorities’ management of catastrophic flooding in eastern Libya in September 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. The floods caused widespread destruction, with whole neighborhoods flushed away and thousands of people killed. Despite flood warnings up to three days […]
Cape Town — The activities in Africa of Russia’s Wagner Group, the private paramilitary group which deploys mercenaries to support the Kremlin’s foreign policy objectives, are coming under increased American scrutiny as the United States, Russia and China compete for strategic advantage on the continent. The intensified focus on Wagner in Africa has been reflected […]
Benghazi/Al-Marj, Libya — ‘My neighbours used farm equipment to save us.’ Along the corridors of a school in the centre of Benghazi, Libya’s second most populous city, children giggle as they explore the newly painted walls and run around refurbished classrooms. Little do they know, this school is their new home. Inside the al-Laithi school, […]
More than 11,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands are missing following the catastrophic dam collapse in the eastern Libyan city of Derna on 12 September. The dam collapse came after an extreme storm, Storm Daniel, slammed into the north African country. The Conversation Africa’s Moina Spooner asked water resources and engineering expert […]
Beirut — Release People Held Merely for Peaceful Expression The Libyan House of Representatives should repeal a 2022 Anti-Cybercrime Law that restricts freedoms of speech, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities in eastern Libya should immediately release anyone they are holding under this law for peaceful expression. Eastern-based authorities on February 16, 2023, announced […]
In the aftermath of a devastating flood in Libya, the threat of more dam failures looms. As bodies are collectively buried, survivors face the risk of displaced land mines and contaminated water. A week after a catastrophic flood devastated Derna, a coastal city in Libya, affected regions are still threatened by more dams breaking due […]
Over the past year, the Tripoli-based Internal Security Agency (ISA) has subjected dozens of men, women and children to a range of abuses, including enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and torture, with some facing the death penalty, under the guise of “guarding virtue,” said Amnesty International today. Amnesty International has gathered evidence of an intensified crackdown […]
The Derna disaster shows the lethal effect of a convergence between climate, governance and security threats. The catastrophic flood last week in Derna, north-eastern Libya, has claimed the lives of 11 300 people. A significant number are still missing. Triggered by Storm Daniel, the event has sparked a humanitarian crisis and could worsen economic challenges […]
Beirut — Severe Restrictions on Local, International Civil Society Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU) and other authorities are cracking down on nongovernmental domestic and foreign organizations, Human Rights Watch said today. The GNU should withdraw onerous registration and administration requirements and ensure that civic groups are free to operate. In a March 21, 2023 […]
Moscow is expanding its “security for resources” blueprint in Libya under the lead of the new Wagner Group’s General Andrei Averyanov. What does this mean for the democratic transition? Years of war and chaos, an ongoing political stalemate, the devastating flood in September 2023, and the absence of a democratic path have made Libya prone […]
Earlier this year the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi reported that about 2.5 tonnes of uranium ore concentrate had gone missing from a site in Libya. This was arguably one of the largest quantity of uranium ore concentrate that had ever been misplaced. Barely a day after the IAEA’s announcement, General Khaled […]
Six months after catastrophic floods in Derna killed at least 4,352 people, left thousands missing and displaced nearly 45,000 people, Libya’s authorities have shied away from investigating the responsibility of powerful military and political actors in the catastrophic death toll and did not ensure that all those affected were granted equal access to compensation, said […]
Over the weekend of 16-17 March, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team on board the rescue vessel Geo Barents witnessed two violent incidents involving the European Union (EU) funded Libyan Coast Guard that deliberately endangered the lives of hundreds of people seeking safety. MSF calls on the EU and its member states to immediately suspend […]
On Thursday, March 21, 91 refugees arrived in Rwanda from Libya. They were refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, and South Sudan who had been trying to get into Europe but instead got stuck in Libya. This is the 17th group of asylum seekers who have been evacuated from Libya to Rwanda since 2019 under the […]
Russia’s presence in Africa heavily depends on the Wagner Group, headed by Yevgeny Prighozin. But now there is uncertainty about the private military company’s role after its short-lived mutiny in Russia. The apprehension is palpable on the streets of Bamako, the capital of Mali. In August 2020, the military overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, and […]
Tripoli and Tobruk plan a reunified government, but the UN and wider international community are wary of this approach. Libya has found itself in an anomalous predicament. Its two deeply divided and competing governments are in rare accord about how to take the riven country forward – but the international community largely opposes them both. […]
There are close to 700,000 foreigners living in Libya, many of them migrants who’d like to make their way to Europe. Some of those who were turned back want to try again. Despite the recent capsize of an overloaded fishing boat packed with migrants off the Greek coast, heading from Libya to Europe, and what […]
Washington — Ensure Due Process; Allow Access to Family, Legal Counsel United States and Libyan authorities should clarify the legal basis for the abusive arrest and subsequent extradition to the US of a Libyan suspect in the 1988 deadly airplane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, Human Rights Watch said today. US authorities on December 12, 2022, […]