More than 1,700 people have died this year on the Mediterranean Sea migration route to Europe, and both UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and IOM, the UN Migration Agency, appealed jointly to European governments on Wednesday to change their “dangerously toxic” discourse on migration. “The current tenor of the political debate…
Three North African nations saw extreme rains and deadly flooding earlier this week, with Nabeul and Jemmel in Tunisia among the hardest hit, and torrential rains turning Tripoli’s streets into rivers. Algeria also was affected, but now the storm system is taking aim at southern Europe as a so-called “medicane.”…
Khalifa Haftar, head of the Libyan National Army, has in recent days threatened to move on Tripoli, retaliate against Algeria over allegations its military is crossing into Libyan territory, and called Italy an enemy of the Libyan people. “Tripoli must be liberated and will not remain in spoiled hands,” Haftar…
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says human traffickers and smugglers in Libya are impersonating their humanitarian aid staff, wearing UNHCR vests and other items to deceive migrants. Citing reliable reports from their sources and refugees, UNHCR said the practice pops up at smuggling hubs and disembarkation points where migrant…
Authorities closed a bridge last fall in northern Libya after an inspection found potential fractures in the structure – one that’s identical to the bridge that collapsed Tuesday in Genoa, Italy, and designed by the same civil engineer. The Wadi el Kuf bridge, completed in 1972 by Riccardo Morandi, is…
Nearly 2,000 people living in Tripoli in an internally displaced persons (IDP) settlement have been forcibly evicted by armed militias, the United Nations Refugee Agency said Tuesday. Triq Al Matar was the largest IDP settlement in Tripoli, hosting families originally from the city of Tawergha who have lived there since…
The 141 migrants aboard the rescue ship Aquarius are headed for Malta, after days of yet another standoff on the Mediterranean Sea as three countries refused to allow the ship port access. Malta originally refused to accept the ship, as did Spain, which previously allowed its passengers to disembark during…
General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) has recaptured Derna, the last bastion of Islamist forces in the country’s east. The victory is not only an important strategic breakthrough in Haftar’s four-year-long campaign to rid Libya of extremist militias, but also carries important symbolic value: Derna, after all, was the…
I am a London-based researcher specialized in security issues and environmental protection. He is currently writing a book about the role lobbying plays in keeping African leaders in power.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a controversial travel ban affecting citizens of Libya and Somalia hoping to enter the U.S. will stand, despite legal challenges dating to the first days of President Donald Trump’s administration. The 5-4 ruling keeps in place a reworked version of the ban…
Migrants aboard a Mediterranean Sea rescue ship denied entry to Italian ports set sail for Spain at 9 p.m. local time Tuesday night, according to the Sos Méditerranée NGO that operates the ship in collaboration with Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Their departure alongside two Italian military vessels ended a two-day…
Aid workers on the Mediterranean Sea, with more than 600 migrants from Libya aboard the rescue ship Aquarius, continued to search for a solution after Italy refused to accept the ship in one of its ports. The ship, operated by Sos Méditerranée with a medical crew from Doctors Without Borders…
Officials with the United Nations migration agency say the death toll has reached at least 112 after a boat on the Mediterranean Sea sank off the coast of Tunisia at the weekend. The boat was carrying an estimated 180 migrants, many of them from Tunisia, when it went down between…
Human traffickers in Libya reportedly killed more than a dozen people and wounded many others after a group of some 200 Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalis attempted to escape captivity, UNHCR said on Friday. The United Nations refugee agency said the incident happened May 23 in Bani Walid, about 180 kilometers…
The head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) says that despite an attack earlier this month at the High National Elections Commission (HNEC) offices in Tripoli, the country continues to move toward elections planned for later this year. Ghassan Salamé, speaking to the UN Security Council, said the…
Global human rights organization Amnesty International is again pressuring European Union nations to change its policies on migration from Libya, where thousands of refugees and migrants are trapped in shocking conditions. That message comes as EU officials said Wednesday that the central Mediterranean transit numbers remain much lower, but the…