African Union and UNHCR call for probe of Libya airstrike on detention center for migrants

The African Union condemned an airstrike that hit a detention center for migrants in the Libyan capital, killing at least 40 people.

In a statement, Moussa Faki Mahamat called for an independent investigation into the airstrike on the Tajoura detention center and said those responsible for the “horrific crime” should be held to account.

He also demanded an immediate cease-fire in Tripoli, where the self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Khalifa Haftar, launched an offensive in April. His forces are battling militias loosely allied with a weak U.N.-supported government based in Tripoli.

The Tripoli government blamed the airstrike on Haftar’s forces. LNA spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment.

The U.N. refugee agency is calling for an immediate end to bringing migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean back to Libya after an airstrike hit a detention centre, killing at least 40 people.

Charlie Yaxley, spokesman for the UNHCR, noted that the agency had warned less than two months ago that anyone inside the Tajoura detention centre was at risk of being caught in the fighting around Tripoli. Then, an airstrike that hit nearby injured two migrants among more than 500 people detained there.

Yaxley says UNHCR is sending medical teams to the site after the latest airstrike.

Europe is equipping and training the Libyan coast guard, which has intercepted thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean and taken them back to detention centres in Libya, where many languish without enough food or medical care.

 

Via Washington Post/The Telegraph