News Lelemuku

GENEVA, LELEMUKU.COM - United Nations aid agencies are expressing deep concern for the safety of civilians in Tripoli as fighting moves closer from the outskirts to the center of the Libyan capital. Troops fighting for renegade general Khalifa Haftar began their battle to seize Tripoli on April 5.

U.N. aid agencies are particularly worried about the situation of some 4,000 refugees and migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, who are held in government detention centers in and around Tripoli. Of particular concern are more than 1,500 believed to be trapped in several places of detention close to where the clashes are occurring.

U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Liz Throssell tells VOA her agency is in contact with Libyan authorities, working to guarantee the safety of those detained near the combat zones.

“This includes advocating with the authorities to allow the relocation of vulnerable individuals to the gathering and departure center," she said. "As you can imagine, this is complicated by the severely restricted access amid the security situation. And, to date, we have facilitated relocation of about 150 vulnerable refugees from the Ain Zara detention center.”

Throssell says the UNHCR has set up a hot line for refugees and internally displaced people stuck in areas of conflict seeking assistance. She says her agency has transferred medicine and medical equipment to the Ministry of Health. This is to support emergency units and hospitals around Tripoli.

The World Health Organization reports the number of people killed since the conflict erupted April 5 now stands at 174, including 14 civilians. More than 750 have been wounded.

Despite the dangerous security situation, the International Organization for Migration reports one bit of good news. It says it was able to organize a humanitarian relief flight Monday to repatriate 136 migrants to Nigeria. (Lisa Schlein-VOA)

TRIPOLI, LELEMUKU.COM - Eastern Libyan forcesloyal to commander Khalifa Haftar carried out four airstrikesnear the El Feel oil field as a warning to a rival commander, afield engineer said Saturday.

It was the first military action by the eastern army sinceit banned all flights in southern Libya without itsauthorizationon Friday.

The strikes were directed at commander AliKennah, who wasinside the compound at the time, the engineer told Reuters.

Kennahis allied with the internationallyrecognizedTripoligovernment, while Haftar backs a parallel administration in theeast.

The fractured political climate has caused significantdisruption to the country's oil industry.

The Tripoli Government of National Accord (GNA), backed bythe United Nations, said in a statement that the strike targeteda civilian plane that was trying to evacuate a number of woundedpeople from the oil field to Tripoli.

The strikes damaged the oil field's infrastructure and itsairport runway and "put civilian lives at risk,"the statementadded, without adding details of any casualties.

State oil firm NOC, which runs the El Feel field withforeign partners,could not be immediately reached for comment.

Haftar is a dominant figure in eastern Libya where hisLibyan National Army group seized the second-largest city ofBenghazi in 2017 by expelling Islamists and other fighters.

Last month, his forces started an offensive in the south tofight militants and secure its oil fields, and on Wednesday madegood on the promise by moving on the closed ElShararafield.

His forces have occupied a pumping station 20 kilometers (12miles) from the main ElShararafield but not the rest of the315,000-barrel-a-day site, according to a field engineer.

The El Feel field is located in the same southwestern regionand is still producing crude, usually around 70,000 barrels aday.

ElShararawas shut in December after tribesmen and stateguards seized it.

Kennah, the commander of the Sabha military zone who servedunder former dictator Moammar Gadhafi, was appointed by PrimeMinister FayezSerajlast week. Fayez leads the GNA. (VOA)

ROME, LELEMUKU.COM - Three survivors of the sinking of a rubber dinghy in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya say up to 117 other migrants were aboard at the time, a U.N. migration official said Saturday.

It appeared to be the latest tragedy on the dangerous central Mediterranean route from North Africa to Europe.

Flavio Di Giacomo of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) told Italian state TV that "unfortunately about 120'' migrants were reported by survivors to have been on the overloaded smugglers' dinghy when it was launched from Libyan shores on Thursday evening.

"After a few hours, it began sinking and people began drowning,'' Di Giacomo said.

Among the missing were 10 women and two children, including a 2-month-old baby, he said. Survivors indicated their fellow migrants came from Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Gambia and Sudan, Di Giacomo said.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who has urged that the government show more compassion for migrants, expressed his "deep sorrow for the tragedy that has taken place in the Mediterranean.''

Premier Giuseppe Conte told reporters he was "shocked'' at the reports of the sinking and vowed that Italy would continue to combat human traffickers.

Italy's populist government has banned private rescue boats from bringing migrants to Italian shores. Together with Malta, Italy has also launched probes of the rescue groups themselves, claiming their operations might facilitate trafficking.

Friday rescue

The three survivors of the sinking were plucked to safety by an Italian navy helicopter on Friday afternoon, the navy said.

The Italian navy said when its patrol plane spotted the sinking dinghy it had about 20 persons aboard. The plane's crew launched two life rafts near the dinghy, which inflated, and a navy destroyer 100 nautical miles (200 kilometers) away sent a helicopter to the scene.

That helicopter rescued the survivors, two from a life raft and one from the water, the navy said, adding that all had hypothermia.

They were flown to Lampedusa, an Italian island near Sicily, and treated in a hospital, Di Giacomo said.

Many migrants cannot afford to pay for life vests, an extra cost when boarding a smuggler's boat in Libya. The survivors said the migrants aboard the dinghy didn't have any.

It wasn't immediately clear exactly how many migrants might have died before the navy plane spotted the sinking dinghy.

The Italian Coast Guard says Libya asked a nearby cargo ship to search forsurvivorsbut the ship reported it found no one.

Libyan navy spokesman AyoubGassimsaid one of its boats was sent Friday to the scene but it "had a mechanical issue and we had to call it back.'' The official said 50 migrants were believed to have been aboard the dinghy when it set sail.

According to the IOM, at least 2,297 people died at sea or went missing trying to reach Europe in 2018. In all, 116,959 migrants reached Europe by sea routes last year, it says.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCRsaid Saturday it was "appalled'' at the news of the latest migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. In a statement from its Geneva headquarters, it said in addition to those missing off Libya, 53 people died in recent days in the western Mediterranean, where one survivor was rescued by a fishing boat after being stranded for more than 24 hours at sea.

Can't be ignored

"We cannot turn a blind eye to the high numbers of people dying on Europe's doorstep,'' said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

Italy has trained and equipped the Libyan coast guard so it can intercept and rescue more migrant boats closer to their shores. But U.N. refugee officials and rights advocates say the migrants rescued by the Libyans are returned to dangerous, overcrowded detention facilities, where detainees face insufficient rations, rape, beatings and torture.

Libyan navy official AyoubGassimsaid Saturday that the Libyan navy had stopped two smuggling boats, one with 67 migrants aboard and the other with 20.

In a separate operation, the German rescue group Sea-Watch said it rescued 47 people from a rubber boat off the coast of Libya.

After Italy's populist government took power in June 2018, the number of migrants reaching Italy after rescue at sea dropped off sharply, as anti-migrant Interior Minister MatteoSalvinirefused to let humanitarian rescue vessels enter Italian ports.

Salvinisays Italy has received hundreds of thousands of migrants rescued from Libyan-based smugglers in unseaworthy boats in the last few years and demands that other European Union countries do their part.

After the latest sea tragedy,Salvinisaid that when humanitarian rescue boats patrol off Libya, "the smugglers resume their dirty trafficking [and] people start dying again.'' (VOA)

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - New records by the International Organization for Migration find more than 6,600 Africans have died over the past five years, most while crossing the Sahara desert toward Europe. However, the study notes these numbers are “just the tip of the iceberg.”

This year alone, hundreds of eye-witness accounts have confirmed nearly 1,400 migrant deaths on the African continent. But researchers say these numbers represent only a tiny fraction of the overall number of deaths of people on the move in Africa.

The International Organization for Migration reports most of the recorded deaths have occurred in the Sahara Desert, northern Niger, southern Libya, and northern Sudan. It says the migrants use these routes to reach Libya, the gateway to Europe and a hoped-for better life.

IOM spokesman, Joel Millman, says the migratory routes are used by smugglers and traffickers who take advantage of the African migrants they encounter. He says the main causes of recorded migrant deaths in Africa indicate that many are preventable.

“Starvation, dehydration, physical abuse, sickness and lack of access to medicines are causes of death frequently cited by the migrants who reported deaths on routes within Africa," he said. "Involvement with human smugglers and traffickers in human beings can put people in extremely risky situations in which they have little agency to protect themselves, let alone fellow travelers they see being abused.”

While most of the deaths identified are young men, Millman tells VOA hundreds of women and children also are among the victims. He says the survey, which deals with the deaths of migrants, reveals that little support is given to those who have survived the terrible journey.

He says people who have seen their fellow travelers die are severely distressed. He says they experience significant psychosocial stress but receive little help in recovering from the traumatic events. (VOA)