UN News
On the sidelines of the Human Rights Councilin Geneva, head of the Fact-Finding Mission on Libya, Mohamed Auajjar, told journalists that investigators had uncovered further evidence of serious rights violations, which they first made public last October.
These abuses against migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are detailed in a report which will be presented to the Council on Wednesday, Mr. Auajjar said.
His team’s findings include new information on “20 detention facilities, official and unofficial…(and) secret prison networks that are allegedly controlled by armed militias”.
Years of violent instability
The development comes amid a backdrop of ongoing violence and lawlessness in Libya linked to the country’s protracted crisis that followed the overthrow of President Muammar Gadaffi in 2011.
After years of volatility, the situation came to a head – and thousands died – after April 2019, when fighting erupted between factions of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) commanded by Khalifa Haftar, based in the east, and the internationally-recognized government in the capital, Tripoli, located in the west.
The escalation prompted a ceasefire appealfrom UN Secretary-General António Guterres to avoid the “bloody battle for Tripoli”, amid fighting in and around the capital.
Today, tensions remain high after national elections were postponed last December, Mr Auajjar explained, with “two competing governments” still in place.
“Against this backdrop, violence and violations and abuses of international human rights law continued,” he noted, adding that these “violations and abuses and crimes…can especially hamper Libya’s transition to peace, democracy and the rule of law”…
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