• Contributor | Resources

    An investigation in Libya by multiple human rights organisations paints an alarming picture of the treatment inflicted on the migrant population, in the confusion that currently reigns in the country. With rich oil reserves and a small population, Gaddafi’s Libya relied heavily on migrant labour to serve the economy. During the conflict hundreds of thousands of migrants fled to Tunisia, Egypt and neighbouring countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, fearing for their lives. More than six months since the conflict’s end, migrants and refugees in Libya continue to be victims of grave violations of their human rights.

    Tagged under Resources Libya

  • Libya's government has sent troops to put an end to six days of clashes between rival armed groups in the west of the country. The fighting, which left least 16 people killed and scores of others injured, is the latest episode of instability eight months since the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi's regime after a months-long conflict. As it seeks to impose its authority on a fractious country, Libya's new leadership on Saturday called for an immediate ceasefire in the fighting south of the capital Tripoli.

    Tagged under Violence & Peace Libya

  • NATO has consistently blocked any attempt to scrutinise the war crimes it committed during the ‘humanitarian intervention' in Libya.

    Tagged under Governance Libya

  • Representatives of the International Criminal Court arrived in Tripoli on Sunday to try to secure the release of a detained delegation visiting Muammar Gaddafi's captured son, a Libyan official said. The four-member delegation was being held in the western mountain town of Zintan after one of its lawyers, Australian Melinda Taylor, was found carrying documents regarded as suspicious for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a Libyan lawyer and a militia member said.

    Tagged under Violence & Peace Libya

  • Contributor | Governance

    Libya has postponed its landmark election for a constitutional assembly to July 7 because of technical and logistical issues, the head of the electoral commission said. The first elections since the fall of the country's longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi were due to be held on June 19. Two hundred representatives are to be elected and tasked with drafting the country's constitution, but authorities say they need more time to vet candidates.

    Tagged under Governance Libya

  • Fighting between government forces and tribal fighters in the southern Libyan town of Kufra has continued for a second day, officials said. At least 16 people have died since the clashes began on Saturday, with women and children among the dead. Libya's government has been struggling to maintain security since the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi last year.

    Tagged under Violence & Peace Libya

  • If you want a vision of Africa under AFRICOM tutelage, look no further than Libya, NATO’s model of an African state: condemned to decades of violence and trauma through military colonialism.

    Tagged under Violence & Peace Libya

  • Contributor | Governance

    Libya's former deputy election commissioner says he quit his post because he does not believe the country is ready for next month's elections. Sghair Majeri has told Al Jazeera that 'holding elections by June 19 is a mission impossible' as it is a time-consuming process. However, Libya's Election Commission insists everything is still on track for holding the vote on June 19.

    Tagged under Governance Libya

  • Contributor | Governance

    While the National Transitional Council government heads to elections, local militias threaten to launch secessionist movements and others refuse to demobilize. As preparations intensify for elections on 23 June for a parliament that will write a new constitution, much of Libya is still under the control of local militias.

    Tagged under Governance Libya

  • A tenuous peace has taken hold in Libya’s southwestern city of Sebha more than a month after tribal clashes killed at least 70 people, with tensions still high between communities living here, many of whom have their own armed militias, according to local residents. The latest clashes erupted in March between the Tubu ethnic group and the Arab Awlad Sulayman and Awlad Abu Seif tribes. The clashes are said to have begun after a man belonging to the Abu Seif family was killed allegedly by the Tubu. But other narratives suggest the conflict followed a dispute over several million dollars which the ruling Transitional National Council (TNC) was planning to spend in Sebha.

    Tagged under Violence & Peace Libya

  • An assault on the Libyan interim government headquarters has left one guard dead and several others wounded, according to reports. Fighters attacked and surrounded the building on Tuesday 8 May, demanding stipends that the government promised to pay to those who helped oust former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Nasser al-Manaa, an interim government spokesperson, said the armed protesters, some of them carrying mortars, tried to push their way into the building.

    Tagged under Violence & Peace Libya

  • This policy brief from the International Organisation of Migration looks at the situation of migrants who have returned home to several West African countries as a result of the conflict in Libya. It aims to provide an understanding of the factors that led to migration to Libya, in the first place; the migrants’ journey to Libya and their efforts to make a new life; the hasty return home; and the current needs of returnees and context to which they are returning.

    Tagged under Violence & Peace Libya

  • Evidence that British intelligence services colluded with Libyan spies by passing over details of refugees who fled the North African country is to be investigated by the UK Parliament. Allegations that MI5 housed two Libyan agents in a central London safe house, providing them with details of asylum claimants who could be coerced into working for Gaddafi's regime, will be examined by MPs on the Intelligence and Security Committee, the Home Office said.

    Tagged under Violence & Peace Libya

  • The Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) must act immediately to investigate and prosecute abuses against the Tawargha community of black Libyans, said Amnesty International today, after another Tawargha man was tortured to death in a Misratah detention centre. The body of 44-year-old father of two Barnous Bous’a was delivered to his family on 16 April. It was covered with bruises and cuts, including an open wound to the back of the head.

    Tagged under Violence & Peace Libya

  • Contributor | Resources

    Libyan authorities are struggling to cope with a post-revolution influx of migrants, many of whom are using the Mediterranean country as a stepping stone to Europe, according to this Al Jazeera video. Mustafa Joha, the commanding officer of Tripoli's naval base, says that the country's coastline is too vast to patrol effectively, especially since NATO forces destroyed most of its ships during the country's war.

    Tagged under Resources Libya

  • A new UN report strongly suggests that the rush to a NATO ‘humanitarian intervention’ might have been made on exaggerated evidence, and that NATO’s own military intervention might have been less than ‘humanitarian’ in its effects.

    Tagged under Governance Libya

  • Contributor | Governance

    NATO has not sufficiently investigated the air raids it conducted on Libya that killed at least 60 civilians and wounded 55 more during the conflict there, according to a new United Nations report. Nor has Libya’s interim government done enough to halt the disturbing violence perpetrated by revolutionary militias seeking to exact revenge on loyalists, real or perceived, to the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the report concluded.

    Tagged under Governance Libya

  • Contributor | Governance

    Damaging new claims have emerged about the funding of Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign and his links with former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The French investigative website Mediapart claims to have seen a confidential note suggesting Gaddafi contributed as much as €50-million to Sarkozy's election fund five years ago. But Sarkozy has angrily denied receiving funds from the slain Libyan dictator.

    Tagged under Governance Libya

  • Libyan leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil has said he will defend national unity 'with force' after tribal leaders and a political faction declared that the east would become a semi-autonomous region. 'We are not prepared to divide Libya,' Jalil said, calling on eastern leaders to engage in dialogue and warning them against remnants of the former regime in their ranks.

    Tagged under Violence & Peace Libya

  • At the battered terminal of Tripoli’s tiny Mitiga airport, over 150 young men and women jostle to be repatriated home to Nigeria on Libya’s Buraq airlines. This journey to Lagos is one of hundreds the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has facilitated since the start of the uprising against Gaddafi’s regime over a year ago. IOM estimates that one million migrant workers were in Libya sending remittances home before the crisis, a heavy footprint for a Libyan population of under seven million.