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Tag: Libya

  • I abandoned my children for Libya trip – Victim

    I abandoned my children for Libya trip – Victim

    One of the four ladies rescued from a human trafficker, Ganiat Ajijola, arrested by the operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of Lagos State Police Command, over the weekend, has disclosed that she abandoned her two children for her husband in order to pave way for botched Libya trip.

    The victim, Cecilia Bankole, 26, a hair dresser stated that her husband, name withheld, resisted her plan to abandon her children in search of Golden Fleece to Libya.

    The mother of two children aged 2 and 4 years respectively, noted that when the issue was discussed with her husband initially, he disagreed with the plan, “I told my husband to allow me to go so that I would have an opportunity to raise funds for the family. I pleaded with him but he insisted in having the custody of his children. Although, I am a hairdresser but not done my freedom, going to Libya to work as artisan would enable me raise funds for my freedom as well as take care of my family. Even, when my mother pleaded with him that she would be taking care of the children while I will be away, he still declined. However, after much persuasion, my husband threatened me to have the custody of his children after my departure and I must not look back for them,” she added.

    She explained that the human trafficker refused to open up for them how long they would stay in Libya.

    “The trafficker didn’t tell us the number of years we are going to spend in Libya. She only told us the due date of the passport and that we are going by road,” the innocent mother said.

    Expressing a contrary opinion, Mrs Maria Bankole, the victim’s mother and a prophetess in a white garment church in Alagbado, said that, what Ganiat Ajejola told her was that her daughter would be re – united with her after two years.

    “I was informed of a big madam, whom Ganiat Ajejola was working for in Libya needs hairdressers to help her manage her shop. Upon hearing that my daughter will be going abroad, I volunteered my daughter because she is a hairdresser. I begged her husband but he declined to allow her go on the trip but I have prayed about it and God said she should go. That is why I am encouraging her,” she said.

    According to her, “I followed her to the point where they were arrested because I want to know Ganiat Ajejola before their departure. I am not aware they were going by road. They told me Ganiat was taking them to Abeokuta to arrange an international passport for them.”

    The operatives of the RRS whom were on the trail and surveillance of the human trafficker for two weeks before her arrest, hinted that they acted based on a tip–off from the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.

    The rescued victims and the human trafficker have been immediately transferred to National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Person (NAPTIP).

  • Benghazi attack: Congress to quiz Clinton

    Benghazi attack: Congress to quiz Clinton

    Former U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will on Thursday appear before a congressional committee to answer questions about the 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.

    The Select Committee on Benghazi will question Clinton in what is expected to be an eight-hour hearing about the Sept. 11, 2012, attack that killed four Americans, including U.S. Amb. Christopher Stevens.

    Clinton and Democrats have said questions about the attack have already been answered in previous investigations and allege that the hearings are politically motivated to damage Clinton’s presidential bid.

    Republican Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy denies those charges and insists he is focused on getting to the bottom of the attack.

    “She’s a witness, she was the secretary of state, you have to talk to her,’’ he told newsmen, while stressing that he is more interested in witnesses to the actual attack.

    “What I want to know is while violence in Libya is going up, why is security going down,’’ Gowdy said.

    Two Republicans, including majority leader Kevin McCarthy, have in recent weeks noted the investigation has damaged Clinton politically, but were later forced to backtrack.

    The State Department and Clinton have faced years of questions about security in Benghazi and the lack of response to requests from diplomats to beef up security.

    The congressional inquiry brought to light Clinton’s exclusive use of private email for official business while serving as secretary of state.

    The emails had become a liability in her presidential campaign, raising questions about transparency, judgment, technical security and the handling of sensitive communications relating to the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi.

    The email issue has evoked voters’ memories of the scandals and secrecy that often plagued her husband, President Bill Clinton, during his 1993-2001 administration.

    It would be recalled that islamist militants attacked U.S. facilities in Benghazi, killing Stevens and another diplomat and two CIA employees prompting U.S. officials to characterise the attack as the result of a spontaneous anti-American protest against an anti-Muslim film.

    Questions about when U.S. officials dubbed the attack terrorism plagued the administration even as Obama referred to “acts of terror’’ in remarks the day after the attack.

    The long-running inquiry has tested Clinton’s patience, prompted a testy exchange during her previous testimony on Benghazi in 2013.

    Clinton had previously stated that “with all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans, was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they’d they go kill some Americans’’.

    “What difference at this point does it make’’.

    The phrase “what difference does it make’’ has since been used repeatedly by Clinton’s critics to accuse her of callousness- as experts say that it could have consequences for her presidential ambitions.

  • Arab League meets over Islamic State attacks

    Arab League meets over Islamic State attacks

    The Cairo-based Arab League (AL) on Tuesday held an emergency meeting on Islamic State (IS) crimes in Libya, local media reports have said.

    The report quoted Bishr Khasawneh, Jordan’s Permanent Representative to AL as saying the meeting was held under the request of Libya who demanded air strikes by Arab states to confront IS attacks in Libya.

    He said the request if granted, would be executed under the framework of the Joint Defense and Economic Cooperation of the League of Arab States.

    Violent clashes were reported last week between IS militants and local fighters over control of the city of Sirte.

    The IS-linked group has beheaded 12 people and crucified their bodies during the clashes.
    The Libyan government condemned the `massacre’ in the Sirte, the majority of which fell into the militants’ control at the end of May.

    Libya has been in turmoil since the fall and killing of its former leader, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011.

  • Supersand Eagles qualify as Libya withdraws

    Nigeria has qualified for the  2015 African Beach Soccer  Championship finals after Libya announced its withdrawal from the qualifying competition.

    Libya’s withdrawal has been communicated to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), meaning the 2007 and 2009 champions go through to the finals scheduled for April 14-19 in Seychelles .

    The Supersand Eagles returned to the country on Monday following a third place finish at the Power Horse Invitational Tournament in Durban, South Africa, and were set to continue training in Lagos ahead of the first leg of the qualifying fixture against Libya which was to be played this weekend.

    Coach Audu Adamu Ejo said: “We would have loved to use the fixture against Libya as part of our preparation for the African Beach Soccer Championship. However, there is nothing we can do other than to now start our final camping for the championship.”

     

  • ThankGod turns prayer warrior in Libya

    ThankGod turns prayer warrior in Libya

    Super Eagles ace and  former Warri Wolves defender Ike ThankGod no doubt believes that prayer is the key, as he has made prayer and romance with words of exaltation his major companion since joining Al-Lttihad of Libya.

    A cursory perusal of the former Heartland defender’s Facebook account indicates that he begins and ends his posts with either a Biblical quotation or prayer.

    In one of his recent posts, ThankGod quoted from the book of Joshua chapter 1 verse 3-6 which states in part. “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon that have I given unto you as I said unto moses.”

    ThankGod, who did not feature for Super Eagles after his debut in 2010, posted impressive outings for Heartland and Warri Wolves before venturing outside the shores of the country in the hope of taking his career to greater heights.

    Since posting pictures of his departure and subsequent training with his new club, his teeming followers have continued to add “Amen” to his prayers for success and good luck even as many added theirs asking God to bless his feet and his effort.

    The Imo State born defender is certainly not prepared to toe the line of legions of Nigerian players who had ventured into foreign land with intent to further their career only to meet brick walls either because they are not able to measure up or fell into the hands of wrong agents who signed them into slavery.

  • UN envoy opposes foreign intervention in Libya

    The newly appointed U.N. envoy to Libya said yesterday he doesn’t believe foreign intervention can halt the North African country’s slide deeper into turmoil after mysterious airstrikes against Islamist militias prompted allegations that outside powers were trying to swing the fight.

    The diplomat, Bernardino Leon, said that only an inclusive political process with all Libyans represented in parliament, government and other state institutions will end the chaos gripping the country more than three years after the uprising that forced longtime strongman Muammar Gadhafi from power.

    France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States raised similar concerns, saying in a joint statement that “outside interference in Libya exacerbates current divisions and undermines Libya’s democratic transition.”

    The New York Times, citing unnamed American officials, reported in its Tuesday edition that Egypt and the United Arab Emirates secretly carried out airstrikes against Islamist militias inside Libya, which it said caught American officials off-guard.American officials have not made similar claims publicly.

    Egypt has repeatedly denied involvement. Emirati officials have not commented.Islamist militias in Libya have made similar allegations against Egypt and the Emirates following two days of mystery airstrikes against Islamist-allied militia positions in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, since Aug. 18.

    The strikes happened as Islamist-backed militias were fighting for control of Tripoli’s international airport. Libyan officials have repeatedly called the airstrikes “foreign,” and the country’s air force likely does not have the capability to fly night sorties.

    Libyan lawmakers recently voted to ask the United Nations to intervene in the ongoing militia battles throughout the country.

    These militias largely are comprised of the rebels who toppled and later killed Gadhafi in 2011.

    Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri yesterday strongly denied reports of an Egyptian role in the airstrikes, calling them “unsubstantiated rumors promoted until they become a reality.”

    The Emirates and its Gulf neighbour Qatar played the most prominent Arab roles in the military intervention that helped lead to Gadhafi’s ouster, with both sending warplanes to assist the NATO-led effort.

    They also provided humanitarian aid, and Qatar in particular played a major role as a supplier of weapons to rebel groups.

    Libya needs “a lot of international support” to back “Libyans who want to fight chaos … through a political process.” Leon, the U.N. diplomat said.

    Leon spoke in Cairo yesterday on his final trip as a European envoy to the region. He takes up his post as the UN special envoy to Libya next month.

    He was in Cairo following a meeting of diplomats from Libya’s neighbours where there were calls for an international push to disarm its myriads of militias.

    He said Libya’s neighbours are in a better position to assess what is going on and to take decisions on ways to support a political process.

  • Why is Libya lawless?

    Why is Libya lawless?

    No-one – that is the problem. There are lots of different armed groups – up to 1,700 – with many different goals. But money and power is a common denominator.

    During the uprising, anyone with a gun could command respect and some do not want that to change. Instead, they seem more determined than ever to gain more territory and impose their will.

    They are also ideologically divided – some of them are Islamists, others are secessionists and yet others are liberals. Furthermore, the militias are split along ethnic and regional lines, making it a combustible mix. Some fear Libya could descend into civil war.

    They were united in their hatred for Col Gaddafi – but nothing more. There was no single group in charge of the rebellion. Militias were based in different cities, fighting their own battles.

    Several felt they had paid a particularly high price during the conflict and should be rewarded. And after more than four decades of authoritarian rule, they had little understanding of democracy. So, they were unable to forge compromises and build a new state based on the rule of law. As a result, Libya has had five governments since the 2011 revolution.

    Very little. The US had pledged to help the new government recover weapons – especially anti-aircraft missiles that had gone missing when Col Gaddafi’s government crumbled.

    But Libya remains what some security analysts describe as an arms bazaar. It is awash with weapons which have also ended up in the hands of other armed groups in the region. There is no top-level mediation effort either – by Western powers or regional bodies like the Arab League and African Union (AU). The West and Arab League appear to be more concerned about the instability in Syria and Egypt. As for the the AU, it has little influence in Libya – it opposed the Nato-backed offensive to oust Col Gaddafi, and is viewed with deep suspicion by Libya’s authorities.

    Yet African countries are most concerned about the conflict, fearing it could worsen instability in countries such as Mali and Niger. Weapons from Col Gaddafi’s looted arsenals are also said to have been smuggled to the Sinai, Gaza and even Syria.

    Have foreigners been threatened?

    Yes. There have been a spate of attacks on diplomats in 2012 and 2013. They include the killing of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi, where the uprising against Col Gaddafi began, and the kidnapping of the Jordanian ambassador Fawwaz Eitan, who was released in exchange for a jihadist. There were also attacks on the Italian consulate in Benghazi, as well as the French and the Russian embassies in Tripoli.

    The US appears to be carrying out covert operations in Libya to neutralise the threat. It responded to Mr Stevens’ death by capturing al-Qaeda suspect Anas al-Liby in Tripoli in October 2013.

    Militias have also seized oil terminals, operated by Western firms. It has led to a huge fall in production, but has not had a major impact on the global oil market

    Ansar al-Sharia is said to be the most dangerous Islamist armed group in Libya. It was blamed for Mr Stevens’ killing, and is said to have forged links with other Islamists groups. Some analysts say Ansar al-Sharia have men who fought in Syria, though there has been no independent confirmation of this.

    Colonel Khalifa Haftar also has a powerful militia. He was behind the 16 May air attack on a military air base in Benghazi and the assault two days later on the parliamentary building in Tripoli. He says his objective is to defeat Ansar al-Sharia, though government officials accuse him of being a renegade simply driven by a thirst for power.

    Gen. Haftar helped Col Gaddafi seize power in 1969, and played a key role in Libya’s military incursion into Chad in the 1980s. He later fell out with Col Gaddafi, and fled to the US.

    He resurfaced in Libya during the uprising against Col Gaddafi’s rule, and built a militia that drew in other ex-Gaddafi loyalists. To many Libyans, he remains a shadowy figure who has caused much instability. His main base is in Benghazi, but he has shown his influence stretches to Tripoli. Last week he called on Libya’s judiciary to set up a crisis cabinet saying that the government has failed the people. The move was rejected by government accusing the general’s call as an ‘attempted coup’’

    Many of them live in fear – and have to move to safe places when fighting breaks out. They feel their dreams have been shattered – like many in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia after their own popular uprisings.

    But the situation in Libya is far more anarchic – that is because the army disintegrated after Col Gaddafi’s fall, unlike in Egypt. Moreover, Libya has never had well-established political groups – like Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Tunisia’s Ennahda – to champion the interests of their constituents.

    So, the government is at the mercy of the militias. In fact, it pays many of the militiamen, hoping they will switch loyalties and help build a new national army but there is little evidence of that happening.

  • US seizes Libya oil tanker

    US seizes Libya oil tanker

    UNITED States Navy SEALs hascaptured an oil tanker that had loaded crude at a rebel-held port in eastern Libya and escaped to sea, the Pentagon said.

    The weak Tripoli government’s failure to halt the tanker had plunged the country into one of its biggest crises since Moamer Kadhafi was toppled by a NATO-backed uprising in 2011, with parliament ousting Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, who fled the country.

    No one was hurt when US forces, at the request of both Libya and Cyprus, “boarded and took control of the commercial tanker Morning Glory, a stateless vessel seized earlier this month by three armed Libyans,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said.

    The operation was approved by President Barack Obama and was conducted in the early hours of Monday (just after 0200 GMT) in international waters southeast of Cyprus.

    The naval commandos operated from the USS Roosevelt, a guided missile destroyer which provided helicopter support, while sailors from another destroyer, the USS Stout, boarded the tanker and prepared to sail it to an unnamed port in Libya, Kirby said in a statement.

    The Morning Glory last week slipped through a Libyan naval blockade of the eastern port of Al-Sidra – controlled by rebels seeking autonomy from Tripoli – after reportedly being loaded with some 234,000 barrels of crude.

    Libya’s interim government confirmed the takeover of the ship and thanked the United States and Cyprus.

    It said in a statement the tanker was on its way to Libya and that crew members “will be treated in accordance with national and international laws.”

    “Oil is the lifeblood of the national economy and any attack on the treasures of the Libyan people is unacceptable and cannot go without a response,” it added.

    Cyprus said its vessels had deployed to monitor the tanker’s course as it made its way near the Mediterranean island, remaining in international waters and eventually stopping 18 nautical miles south of the southern port city of Limassol.

    The tanker did not ask for authorisation to moor in a Cypriot port, and early Monday Cypriot officials were notified that the tanker “was placed under the control of the US Navy and is being escorted by US Navy vessels on a westerly course.”

    In a related development, reports in the Cypriot media said two Israelis and a Senegalese national were questioned by police in Cyprus on Saturday on suspicion of negotiating to buy crude from the tanker.

    A Cyprus court declined to issue arrest warrants as authorities had no evidence that the alleged offence was committed within the island’s territorial waters.

    Local media said the three flew in to Larnaca on a private jet late Friday, hired a boat and went out to the tanker to negotiate with the crew.

    Police monitored their movements and the boat was intercepted once they were back in Cyprus waters. The trio flew out to Tel Aviv on Sunday night.

    The oil tanker’s escape after Libyan authorities had repeatedly vowed to take all measures to stop it dramatically underscored the weakness of the central government, which has struggled to rein in heavily-armed former rebels from the 2011 revolt.

    Rebels pressing for autonomy for Libya’s eastern Cyrenaica region — epicentre of the revolt against Gadahafi – have been blockading the country’s eastern oil terminals since July, leading to a decline in exports from 1.5 million barrels a day to just 250,000.

    But the Morning Glory incident marked a major escalation in the struggle and triggered the ouster Tuesday of the liberal-backed Zeidan, whose inability to bring law and order to Libya was highlighted by his own brief abduction by armed men last year.

    The Morning Glory originally was a North Korean-flagged ship, but Pyongyang on Wednesday “cancelled and deleted” its registry on grounds it was carrying contraband material.

    The United States has viewed the chaos in Libya with growing alarm since an attack on its mission in the eastern city of Benghazi on September 11, 2012, in which US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

    On Monday, a car bomb targeting a military academy in Benghazi killed at least seven people and wounded another 12, leaving a one-metre (three-feet) deep crater and torn fragments of bloody military uniforms strewn across the ground.

     

  • EU condemns illegal sale of crude oil in Libya

    The European Union (EU) on Tuesday condemned the illegal sale of Libyan crude oil by the country’s militias.

    In a statement, the EU spokesperson in charge of Foreign Affairs and Security Policies, Michel Man, urged the international community not to buy illegal crude oil.

    He said the armed groups which control Libyan oil fields do not have any international support.

    Libyan soldiers and allied militias recently seized a tanker loaded with crude oil which a separatist militia was attempting to export in defiance of the country’s central authorities.

  • 2 die, one injured as armed group attacks Libyan army unit

    Two persons were killed and one injured as an armed group attacked a unit of the Libyan army in charge of Gharyane (South-West), media report said.

    It added that in Derna, guards found on a beach the body of an Indian doctor, Koufran Mir, who had been missing after he closed from work.

    According to a hospital source, the body of the doctor bore bullet shots.

    Libya has been witnessing clashes between government forces and rival militia groups, which played a key role in the 2011 popular uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

    However, Benghazi where the uprising started has borne the brunt of the violence.

    Report says that three years after the end of Gaddafi’s regime, the new authorities are still unable to ensure law and order in the country