Muammar Gaddafi’s son disqualified from standing in Libya election

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was ruled ineligible amid disputes over rules and threats to peace process

Libya’s election commission said on Wednesday that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former ruler and a strong candidate in December’s planned presidential election, was ineligible to run, compounding the turmoil surrounding the vote.

Gaddafi was one of 25 candidates that the commission disqualified in an initial decision pending an appeals process that will ultimately be decided by the judiciary. Ninety-eight Libyans registered as candidates.

Continue reading...

Libya: UN special envoy quits a month before presidential elections

Ján Kubiš gives no reason for resignation, having only taken post in war-torn country in January

The UN special envoy for Libya, Ján Kubiš, has quit just a month before crucial presidential elections in the war-torn nation – without giving security council members a clear reason for his sudden departure.

“Mr Kubiš has tendered his resignation to the secretary general, who has accepted it with regret,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters, adding that António Guterres was “working on an appropriate replacement”.

Continue reading...

Aid workers say Mediterranean a ‘liquid graveyard’ after 75 feared dead off Libya

People smugglers are putting hundreds to sea this autumn despite stormy weather

More than 75 people are feared dead after their boat capsized in stormy seas off the coast of Libya while attempting to reach Europe in one of the deadliest shipwrecks this year, according to the UN.

Fifteen survivors were rescued by local fishers and brought to the port of Zuwara in north-western Libya. They said there were about 92 people onboard the vessel when the incident took place on 17 November. Most of those who died came from sub-Saharan Africa.

Continue reading...

‘Horrific’: 10 people suffocate in overcrowded migrant boat off Libya

MSF rescue 99 survivors who spent 13 hours on vessel trying to reach Europe as authorities accused of ignoring distress call

Ten people were found dead in the lower deck of a severely overcrowded wooden boat off the coast of Libya, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has reported.

According to survivors, those who died on Tuesday suffocated after 13 hours on the cramped lower deck, where there had been a strong smell of fuel.

Continue reading...

Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar to run for president

Head of self-styled Libyan National Army to stand in country’s first presidential elections in December

A Libyan warlord who led a 14-month assault on the capital and once said the country was not ready for democracy has announced his candidacy in its first presidential elections at the end of next month

Khalifa Haftar, the head of the self-styled Libyan National Army, which fought against its internationally recognised government in the 2014-2020 civil war, declared he wanted to bring the Libyan people “glory, progress and prosperity” as he joined a contest that also includes the son of Libya’s former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, among its hopefuls.

Continue reading...

Gaddafi minister found jointly liable for 1984 killing of PC Yvonne Fletcher

Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk was ‘prime mover’ in 25-year-old’s death outside Libyan embassy in London, says judge

A former minister in Muammar Gaddafi’s government was jointly liable for the shooting of PC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984, a high court judge has ruled.

Reaching his decision on the lower civil standard – which requires proof on the balance of probabilities rather than beyond reasonable doubt – Mr Justice Martin Spencer said on Tuesday that although Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk did not fire the shots himself, he was a “prime mover” in the killing of 25-year-old Fletcher.

Continue reading...

Son of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi runs for president

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has spent past decade out of sight after his father was killed in 2011 uprising

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, one of the sons of the former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has confirmed that he is to run for the presidency of Libya in elections due to start on 24 December.

He registered his nomination in the southern city of Sebha, the High National Electoral Commission has confirmed.

Continue reading...

Libya’s PM and president in dispute over foreign minister’s suspension

Row deepens as Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh dismisses president’s decision to suspend Najla El-Mangoush

Libya’s chronic political instability has been exposed, with the country’s foreign minister, Najla El-Mangoush, suspended from office and banned from leaving the country by the president, only for the disciplinary action to be rejected by the prime minister.

The power struggle comes days before a major conference in Paris at which world powers hope to speed up the departure of foreign mercenaries and troops from Libya ahead of planned December presidential and parliamentary elections, which are hanging in the balance.

Continue reading...

Italy using anti-mafia laws to scapegoat migrant boat drivers, report finds

A decades-long policy of criminalising asylum seekers is filling prisons with innocent men, according to analysis by rights groups

Italian police have arrested more than 2,500 migrants for smuggling or aiding illegal immigration since 2013, often using anti-mafia laws to bring charges, according to the first comprehensive analysis of official data on the criminalisation of refugees and asylum seekers in Italy.

The report by three migrant rights groups has collected police data and analysed more than 1,000 criminal cases brought by prosecutors against refugees accused of driving vessels carrying asylum seekers across the Mediterranean.

Continue reading...

Reports of physical and sexual violence as Libya arrests 5,000 migrants in a week

Raids by the security forces leave at least one man dead, as official observers decry ‘inhumane’ detention conditions

More than 5,000 refugees and migrants have been arrested by the Libyan authorities in the past week with some allegedly subjected to severe physical and sexual violence, before being held in increasingly “inhumane conditions” in detention centres in Tripoli.

Many of those arrested escaped wars or dictatorships across Africa, and have already undergone years of detention. They were intercepted at sea trying to reach Europe by the EU-supported Libyan coastguard.

Continue reading...

War crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Libya since 2016, says UN

Fact-finding mission says migrants and detainees particularly exposed to violations since civil war

War crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture, enslavement, extrajudicial killings and rape have been committed in Libya since 2016, a United Nations investigation has found.

The independent fact-finding mission on Libya, commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, said migrants and detainees were particularly exposed to violations that have occurred since the country was plunged into a state of instability and civil war.

Continue reading...

Libya: credible elections – or another failed bid at nation-building?

Parliamentary and presidential votes were due at the end of the year, but there are fears the interim government hopes to stay in power

Libya’s hopes of ending a decade of political chaos with credible elections at the end of this year for a president and new unified parliament have reached a defining moment, with the US insisting the vote should go ahead but some European diplomats fearing divisions are too entrenched for the result ever to be accepted as legitimate.

The elections are due to take place on 24 December, but no agreement has been reached within the country on laws governing the election. There are also signs that the populist interim government, theoretically appointed by the UN to manage services ahead of the elections, might seek to capitalise on the impasse to stay in power indefinitely. Thousands of foreign troops, mainly funded by Turkey and Russia, are still in place.

Continue reading...

The Guardian view on Fortress Europe: a continent losing its moral compass

The increasingly draconian approach to irregular migration betrays the spirit of the 1951 refugee convention

Seventy years ago, the 1951 UN refugee convention established the rights of refugees to seek sanctuary, and the obligations of states to protect them. Increasingly, it seems that much of Europe is choosing to commemorate the anniversary by ripping up some of the convention’s core principles.

So far this year, close to 1,000 migrants have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean, more than four times the death toll for the same period in 2020. Many will have been economic migrants. Others will have been fleeing persecution. Increasingly, Europe does not care. All were “irregular”. And all must be discouraged and deterred through a strategy of cruelty.

Continue reading...

The Guardian view on Arab democracies: the least worst option | Editorial

Benevolent dictatorship is not the answer to the region’s real problems

This week has shown that Arab regimes are tough on dissent, but much less interested in its causes. This will create problems for years to come as these states struggle to recover from the pandemic. Tunisia’s presidential power grab is a test for Joe Biden’s democracy and human rights agenda. War has impoverished ancient centres of Arab civilisation. The UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia this week pointed out that poverty now affects 88% of the population in Syria and 83% in Yemen. Even nations once considered wealthy have been brought low by an unhappy meeting of leadership failures and Covid-19. Lebanon’s leaders are begging for foreign assistance after the local currency plummeted in value and the population ran short of food, fuel and medicine.

The Arab world is a varied place. The latest UN survey shows it diverging into wealthy Gulf absolute monarchies; a set of middle-income countries with more people than their oil reserves can comfortably afford; war zones in some of the largest nations such as Iraq; and very poor states. The oil-rich sheikhdoms are pulling ahead and using their financial and military clout to extend their influence, often with disastrous results. The Arab region, says the UN, hosts more than six million refugees and more than 11 million internally displaced persons. There is little coordinated action to deal with the numerous social challenges, including growing poverty, increased unemployment and persistent gender inequalities. Food insecurity has spread. One can be too downcast: the UN hopes for a silver lining in the prospect of peace in Libya.

Continue reading...

Powerbrokers of Arab world will be closely watching Tunisia

Analysis: while the politics behind the government’s dismissal are local, regional players will want to influence what happens next

In the decade since the Arab spring, the crucible of the uprisings has been where its legacy has been thrashed out.

Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, where it all began from mid-December 2010, have remained central to the narrative of what took place when autocracies crumbled in the face of restive streets. And for the region’s powerbrokers, all three north African states have since been the centre of an even bigger tussle for influence.

Continue reading...

Migrant boat capsizes off Libya, killing 57, as regional toll for 2021 nears 1,000

International Organization for Migration links rise in deaths to decrease in sea patrols

At least 57 people have died after a migrant boat capsized off the Libyan coast, taking the total death toll in the central Mediterranean in 2021 to almost 1,000 – four times as many as in the same period last year.

Flavio Di Giacomo, Italy’s spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said the shipwreck raised the death toll to 987. “Last year there were 272. We must no longer hesitate, and do everything to strengthen the system of patrols at sea,” he said.

Continue reading...

Marcus Rashford mural and Cuba protests: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Turkey to Colombia

Continue reading...

Fresh evidence of violence at Libyan detention centres as boats turned back

Amnesty International says sexual abuse and beatings rife at camps for those forcibly returned after trying to cross the Med

New evidence of starvation and abuses inside migrant detention centres has been collected from migrants inside seven facilities across Libya.

A report by Amnesty International comes less than a month after Médecins Sans Frontières announced it was suspending its operations at two centres in Libya because of increasing violence towards refugees and migrants.

Continue reading...

Italy to investigate Libyan coastguard’s ‘attempted shipwreck’ of migrant boat

Officials to be investigated after film appears to show patrol boat firing shots at a vessel carrying 64 people in the Mediterranean

Prosecutors in Sicily have launched an investigation against the Libyan coastguard after footage emerged appearing to show officials firing on a boat of migrant families in the Mediterranean Sea.

On 30 June, rescue workers from the German organisation Sea-Watch recorded the Libyan coastguard patrol vessel coming dangerously close to the small wooden boat and apparently firing shots in an attempt to force the 64 people onboard back to Libya.

Continue reading...

Scores dead as migrant boat sinks off Tunisia

Boat carrying migrants from Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Bangladesh was heading towards Italy from Libya when it sank

At least 43 people have drowned in a shipwreck off Tunisia as they tried to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy, while another 84 were rescued, humanitarian organisation the Tunisian Red Crescent has said.

The boat had set off from Zuwara, on Libya’s north-west coast, carrying migrants from Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Bangladesh, the humanitarian organisation said.

Continue reading...