Libyan guards accused of sexually assaulting minors

A Libyan man walks through rubble of the destroyed compound of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in Tripoli’s Bab Al-Aziziya area.(File/AFP)
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Updated 20 June 2021
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Libyan guards accused of sexually assaulting minors

  • Smugglers and traffickers in Libya have long been notorious for brutalizing migrants
  • The UN refugee agency has documented hundreds of cases of women raped while in detention

CAIRO: When Libyan security forces rescued her earlier this year, the young Somali woman thought it would be the end of her suffering. For more than two years, she had been imprisoned and sexually abused by human traffickers notorious for extorting, torturing and assaulting migrants like her trying to reach Europe.

Instead, the 17-year-old said, the sexual assaults against her have continued, only now by guards at the government-run center in the Libyan capital Tripoli where they are being kept.

She and four other Somali teenagers undergoing similar abuses are pleading to be released from the Shara Al-Zawiya detention center. It is one of a network of centers run by Libya’s Department for Combating Illegal Immigration, or DCIM, which is supported by the European Union in its campaign to build Libya into a bulwark against mainly African migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

“While it is not the first time I suffer from sexual attacks, this is more painful as it was by the people who should protect us,” the 17-year-old said, speaking to The Associated Press by a smuggled mobile phone.

“You have to offer something in return to go to the bathroom, to call family or to avoid beating,” she said. “It’s like we are being held by traffickers.” The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual assault, and the young woman also asked not to be named, fearing reprisals.

Smugglers and traffickers in Libya — many of them members of militias — have long been notorious for brutalizing migrants. But rights groups and UN agencies say abuse also takes place in the official DCIM-run facilities.

“Sexual violence and exploitation are rife in several detention centers (for migrants) across the country,” said Tarik Lamloum, a Libyan activist working with the Belaady Organization for Human Rights.

The UN refugee agency has documented hundreds of cases of women raped while in either DCIM detention or traffickers’ prisons, with some even being impregnated by guards and giving birth during detention, said Vincent Cochetel, the agency’s special envoy for the Central Mediterranean.

The group of teens are the only migrants being kept at Shara Al-Zawiya, a facility where usually migrants stay only short periods for processing. Human rights organizations say they have been trying to secure their release for weeks.

After their rescue from traffickers in February, the 17-year-old was brought along with eight other young female migrants to Shara Al-Zawiya. Four of the others were later released under unclear circumstances.

One night in April, around midnight, she asked a guard to let her go the bathroom. When she finished, the guard attacked her and grabbed her breasts forcefully, she recalled.

“I was petrified and didn’t know what to do,” she told AP. The guard touched the rest of her body including her intimate parts, then unzipped his pants and tried to strip her clothes in an attempt to rape her, she said. He continued his assault while she cried, struggled and pleaded for him to get off her.

“He only stopped when he was done on my clothes,” she said. “I was lucky that he was done quickly.”

The guard then ordered her to clean her clothes that had been covered in his semen, she recalled, breaking down in tears.

Terrified, she returned to her cell and told one of the other girls what had happened. She soon learned she wasn’t the only victim. All the girls, aged 16 to 18, had experienced similar or worse abuse by guards, she said.

A 16-year-old in the same cell told the AP she started coming under sexual harassment a few days after arriving at the center. When she pleaded with a guard to call her family, he gave her a phone and let her out of her cell to call her mother. Once she hung up, he stood behind her and grabbed her breasts, she said.

She removed his hands and started to cry. The guard only stopped after realizing other employees were at the center, she said.

“Every day they do this,” she said. “If you resist, you will be beaten or deprived of everything.”

The Libyan government has not responded to requests for comment by the AP.

At least two of the girls attempted to kill themselves in late May following alleged beatings and attempted rapes, according to local rights group Libyan Crime Watch and UN agencies.

One of them, a 15-year-old, was taken to the hospital on May 28 and treated by the international aid group Doctors Without Borders only to be returned to the detention center.

Maya Abu Ata, a spokeswoman for MSF Libya, confirmed that the group’s staff treated the two at its clinic. MSF is the abbreviation for the French name of the group, Medecins Sans Frontieres.

The MSF teams “advocated for their release from detention and lobbied protection actors and different interlocutors, however, these attempts were unsuccessful,” she said.

The UNHCR said it was working with Libyan authorities for the release of the five young women still held at Shara Al-Zawiya and their subsequent evacuation from Libya.

The case of the teens in Shara Al-Zawiya also renews questions about the EU’s role in the cycle of violence trapping migrants and asylum seekers in Libya. The EU trains, equips and supports the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept people trying to cross the Central Mediterranean to Europe. At least 677 people are known to have either died or gone missing taking this route on unseaworthy boats so far this year.

Nearly 13,000 men, women and children have been intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard and returned to Libyan shores from the start of the year up to June 12, a record number. Most are then placed in DCIM-run centers.

At some of the 29 DCIM-run centers around the country, rights groups have documented a lack of basic hygiene, health care, food and water as well as beatings and torture. DCIM receives support, supplies and training, including on human rights, through the EU’s 4.9 billion-euro Trust Fund for Africa.

Libya has been applauded by the West for a cease-fire reached last year and the appointment of an interim government earlier this year, prompting visits by European leaders and the reopening of some embassies. Despite seemingly growing political stability, activists and human rights organizations say their access to migrants in detention centers is becoming more restricted.

“The guns are silent, a cease-fire is in place ... but human rights violations are continuing unabated,” said Suki Nagra, representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Libya, who is following the reports of abuse at Shara Al-Zawiya.

Even when cases are documented and alleged perpetrators arrested, they are often released due to the lack of witnesses willing to testify for fear of reprisals. For example, Abdel-Rahman Milad, who was under UN sanctions and was arrested last year on charges of human trafficking and fuel smuggling, walked free in April without trial.

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Five Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza: military

Updated 7 sec ago
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Five Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza: military

  • Statement: Two of the soldiers ‘fell during combat in the northern Gaza Strip’
  • Latest round of negotiations on war in Gaza began on Sunday in Doha
JERUSALEM: Five Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in the northern Gaza Strip, Israel’s military said on Tuesday, as Israel and Hamas held indirect talks in Qatar on an elusive ceasefire.
Two of the soldiers “fell during combat in the northern Gaza Strip,” the Israeli military said in a statement, adding that three others were killed and two severely wounded in the same incident.
The wounded soldiers were “evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment and their families have been notified,” the military said.
The latest round of negotiations on the nearly two-year war in Gaza began on Sunday in Doha, with representatives of Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas seated in different rooms in the same building.
Monday’s talks ended with “no breakthrough,” a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations said.
The Hamas and Israeli delegations were due to resume talks, with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff also set to join them this week in an effort to secure a ceasefire.
The US proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages, taken during its October 2023 attack on Israel, and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel, two Palestinian sources close to the discussions earlier said.
Hamas was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system, they said.

Trump hosts Netanyahu in push for Gaza deal

Updated 08 July 2025
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Trump hosts Netanyahu in push for Gaza deal

  • Netanyahu was more cagey on peace with the Palestinians and ruled out a full Palestinian state, saying that Israel will ‘always’ keep security control over the Gaza Strip
  • The US proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel, two Palestinian sources close to the discussions had earlier told AFP

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump hosted Benjamin Netanyahu for dinner at the White House on Monday as he pressed the Israeli prime minister to end the devastating Gaza war.
Netanyahu’s third visit since Trump’s return to power comes at a crucial time, with the US president hoping to capitalize on the momentum from a recent truce between Israel and Iran.
“I don’t think there is a hold up. I think things are going along very well,” Trump told reporters at the start of the dinner when asked what was preventing a peace deal.
Sitting on the opposite side of a long table from the Israeli leader, Trump also voiced confidence that Hamas was willing to end the conflict in Gaza, which is entering its 22nd month.
“They want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if clashes involving Israeli soldiers would derail talks.
The meeting in Washington came as Israel and Hamas held a second day of indirect talks in Qatar on an elusive ceasefire.
Netanyahu meanwhile said he had nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — the US president’s long-held goal — presenting him with a letter he sent to the prize committee.
“He’s forging peace as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other,” Netanyahu said.

But Netanyahu was more cagey on peace with the Palestinians and ruled out a full Palestinian state, saying that Israel will ‘always’ keep security control over the Gaza Strip.
“Now, people will say it’s not a complete state, it’s not a state. We don’t care,” Netanyahu said.
Several dozen protesters gathered near the White House as Trump and Netanyahu met, chanting slogans accusing the Israeli prime minister of “genocide.”
Trump has strongly backed key US ally and fellow conservative Netanyahu, lending US support in Israel’s recent war by bombing Iran’s key nuclear facilities.
But at the same time he has increasingly pushed for an end to what he called the “hell” in Gaza. Trump said on Sunday he believes there is a “good chance” of an agreement this coming week.
“The utmost priority for the president right now in the Middle East is to end the war in Gaza and to return all of the hostages,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Leavitt said Trump wanted Hamas to agree to a US-brokered proposal “right now” after Israel backed the plan for a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The latest round of negotiations on the war in Gaza began on Sunday in Doha, with representatives seated in different rooms in the same building.
Monday’s talks ended with “no breakthrough,” a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told AFP. The Hamas and Israeli delegations were due to resume talks later.

Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff was due to join the talks in Doha later this week in an effort to get a ceasefire over the line.
The US proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel, two Palestinian sources close to the discussions had earlier told AFP.
The group was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system, they said.
In Gaza, the civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed at least 12 people on Monday, including six in a clinic housing people displaced by the war.
Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
The war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 57,523 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN considers the figures reliable.

 


Trump says Hamas ‘want to have that ceasefire’ in Gaza

Updated 08 July 2025
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Trump says Hamas ‘want to have that ceasefire’ in Gaza

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump voiced his confidence Monday that Hamas was willing to agree a truce with Israel, as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to push for an end to the Gaza war.
“They want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if clashes involving Israeli soldiers would derail talks.


Libya authorities intercept over 100 migrants off coast

Updated 08 July 2025
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Libya authorities intercept over 100 migrants off coast

  • Libya has been gripped by unrest since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising

TRIPOLI: Libyan authorities on Monday said they had intercepted 113 migrants off the country’s coast and recovered three bodies in separate operations over three days.
The bodies of three “illegal migrants of African nationalities” were discovered on a beach in Misrata, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Tripoli, the Ministry of Interior said.
Also on Monday, security forces on a speedboat intercepted 54 migrants off Garabulli, 50 kilometers east of the capital Tripoli, the ministry added.
They were brought back to the capital’s port and handed over to the competent authorities, it said.
The day before, “as part of a plan to intensify maritime patrols during the summer,” 20 migrants “of various nationalities” were rescued off Zawiya, 45 kilometers west of Tripoli, the ministry said Sunday.
On Saturday, 39 migrants were intercepted off the eastern coast of Tripoli, the ministry reported, without providing further details about where they were found or their point of departure.
Libya has been gripped by unrest since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising.
It has become a hub for tens of thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe, risking their lives at sea.
Migrants intercepted by Libyan authorities — even in international waters before reaching the Italian coast, some 300 kilometers away — are forcibly returned to Libya and held in detention under harsh conditions frequently condemned by the United Nations.
 

 


Ending war in Gaza is ‘Trump’s utmost priority’

Updated 07 July 2025
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Ending war in Gaza is ‘Trump’s utmost priority’

  • Israel’s refusal to allow free and safe entry of aid is key sticking point in Doha truce talks

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s “utmost priority” is to end the war in Gaza and free hostages held by Hamas, the White House said on Monday before a crucial meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will this week travel to Qatar, where Israel and Hamas are holding indirect talks. Israel’s refusal to allow the free and safe entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza remains the main obstacle to progress in the ceasefire talks in Doha, Palestinian sources said. Mediators hosted two more rounds of discussions on Monday. 

The US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the war entirely.
Hamas has long demanded a final end to the war before it would free remaining hostages, but Israel will not halt fighting until all hostages are free and Hamas dismantled. Trump said last week that he would be “very firm” with Netanyahu on the need for a speedy Gaza deal.
However, Israel has intensified its military campaign in Gaza and sharply restricted food distribution. “God willing, a truce will take place,” Mohammed Al-Sawalheh, 30, from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, said on Monday after another Israeli air strike. “We cannot see a truce while people are dying. We want a truce that will stop this bloodshed.”