The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Libya

  • Libya lifts OPEC oil output in August

    The Organiation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) crude production rose in August to the highest level this year as a recovery in Libyan output helped to offset a cut in Iranian exports due to United States sanctions.

    The group’s 15 members, which include the Republic of Congo, produced 32.74 million barrels daily last month, an increase of 420,000 barrels a day from July, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts, oil companies and ship-tracking data.

    OPEC and its allies agreed in June to increase combined output by one million barrels a day to meet consumer demand and prevent a sharp rise in prices.That followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s urging of the group to act to prevent further rises.

    Libya was the biggest contributor to the rise in output across the group, pumping 970,000 barrels daily last month compared to 660,000 barrels a day in July. The country’s biggest oil field, Sharara, has restarted following a kidnapping, a person familiar with the situation said.

    Though Libya’s recovery boosts OPEC’s combined oil output, the country remains an unreliable supplier as civil strife continues to disrupt its petroleum industry.

    The second-largest production increase came from Iraq and the United Arab Emirates: each raised daily oil output by 80,000 barrels last month.

    Iran suffered the biggest output drop across the group, of 240,000 barrels a day, pushing its production down to 3.5 million barrels a day. Though sanctions don’t officially take effect until November, Iran is already seeing customers flee as the U.S. imposes penalties on buyers after Trump quit a 2015 nuclear accord with the country.

    Top exporter Saudi Arabia increased its production by 20,000 barrels a day in August from a revised level of 10.37 million barrels a day a month earlier. The country had indicated it would make a much larger output boost in July, but held back after it wasn’t able to find enough buyers to justify pumping crude at record levels.

     

  • 400 prisoners escape prison in Tripoli chaos – Official

    Some 400 prisoners escaped from a jail in Libya’s capital on Sunday while fighting between rival armed groups raged nearby, a judiciary official said as the UN called for the warring parties to meet on Tuesday.

    The inmates forced open the doors of the Ain Zara prison and guards were unable to stop them, the official said, confirming a judiciary police statement posted on social media.

    He asked not to get identified and could not provide more details.

    The prison is located in southern Tripoli, an area hit for one week by heavy fighting between rival groups.

    Separately, a missile fell on Sunday on the al-Fallah camp for displaced Tawergha people, killing two and wounding seven, including two children, said Emad Ergeha, an activist following Tawergha issues.

    The Tawergha were forced to leave their settlement near the western city of Misrata in the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and have been prevented from going back since.

    Ergeha, who is a Tawergha, also posted online a video of firefighters extinguishing a blaze and showing severe damage to steel-made containers in the camp.
    A rocket also hit the Waddan hotel in central Tripoli near the Italian Embassy on Saturday.

    Three people were injured, staff said.

    State oil firm NOC confirmed one of its diesel depots used to supply a power station had been hit by a rocket on Saturday.

    Fierce clashes erupted on Friday between the Seventh Brigade, or Kaniyat, from Tarhouna, a town 65 km southeast of Tripoli, against the Tripoli Revolutionaries’ Brigades and the Nawasi, two of the capital’s largest armed groups.

    The UN-backed government based in Tripoli declared a state of emergency in the capital “given the seriousness of the current situation.”

    Although the government is formally in charge, it does not control the capital where armed groups are allied to it but operate with autonomy, often motivated by money and power.

    To end the fighting the UN mission in Libya called on the “various concerned parties” to meet on Tuesday noon for an “urgent dialogue on the security situation.”

    Read Also: Court sentences Reuters reporters to seven years in jail

    NAN reports that on Saturday, the U. S., France, Italy and Britain on Saturday condemned what they called an escalation of violence in and around the Libyan capital Tripoli, warning that armed groups which undermined Libyan stability would be made accountable.

    “These attempts to weaken the legitimate Libyan authorities and hinder the ongoing political process are not acceptable,” Washington, Paris, Rome and London said in a joint statement published by the French foreign ministry.

    “We are calling on the armed groups to immediately stop all military action and warn those who seek to undermine stability, in Tripoli or elsewhere in Libya, that they will be made accountable for it,” the statement said.

    Libyan authorities closed Tripoli airport on Friday after some rockets were fired in its direction, a spokesman for the state airline Libyan Airlines said.

  • 3801 Nigerians have been repatriated from Libya, says envoy

    Three thousand eight hundred and one Nigerians have been repatriated from Libya, it was learnt yesterday.

    The social media played a role in the repatriation, the Nigerian Chargé d’affaires Entitre on Mission to Libya, Alex Kefas, said.

    Kefas, who briefed reporters yesterday in Abuja, said 165 Nigerians recently returned from Libya, totalling 3,801 so far repatriated.

    According him, 109 of the 165 Libyan detainees, who returned to Nigeria on Wednesday, were among the detainees, who posted the video on social media that went viral recently.

    “The 165 Nigerians returned from Libya yesterday, totalling 3,801 Nigerians so far repatriated.”

    Kefas said the operation was facing logistic challenge, as the group that arrived Nigeria yesterday, ought to have returned since August 8, a journey that had to be postponed twice.

    He said the Nigerian Mission in Libya is interfacing with Libyan authorities to fast track the process of returning Nigerians trapped in Libya.

    “A meeting between Libya and Nigerian officials took place recently at the office of the Libyan Minister of Interior Affairs, and a proposal has been put forward. By the time it is pulled through, most of the hiccups will be removed.”

    The ambassador appealed to the Libyan authorities to improve the condition of the inmates at detention facilities across Libya, insisting that there were medicare and nutritional concerns.

     

  • ‘1,700 Nigerians in Libya prison’

    …evacuates 165 illegal migrants

    The Charge D’ Affairs, Nigeria Mission to Libya, Mr Alex Kefas, says 165 stranded Nigerian irregular migrants were on Thursday evacuated from Libya by the Federal Government.

    Kefas, who announced this at a news conference on the current situation on Nigerians in Libya, said that 1,700 Nigerians were serving various jail terms in `accessible’ prison in that country.

    He said that were still many other Nigerians held for various offences in various prisons in the area being controlled by the rebels which still remained inaccessible to the mission.

    “Our major issue now, apart from bilateral issue with Libya, is the issue of migrant crisis; the Federal Government as at today evacuated 3,801 irregular migrants in the last few months

    “And, we are also expecting the arrival of 165 irregular migrants that will arrive today (Thursday).

    “There are six of them that are dead and are in the mortuary as we cannot locate their families because many of them change names when they get there,” he said.

    According to him, out of the 165 irregular migrants that arrived in Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos on Thursday, are 109 that appealed for rescue through a video few weeks ago

    “We have 109 that few weeks ago appealed to the president and religious leaders to come to their help through a video that went viral

    “We are happy that they are in this very group that are arriving today (Thursday).

    “The mission has been doing a lot to ensure the welfare of the migrants; some of them were taken to the hospitals for child delivery,” he said.

    He said that the mission had been getting support from the Federal Government to improve funding to take care of challenges that it had been facing.

    “The issue we are talking about is not that we are not doing anything; the European Union, International Organisation on Migration and UN have been doing their best.

    “But one of the challenges is that some of the migrants have insisted that Europe is their destination and we cannot stop them according to international law.

    “Some of them refused to be repatriated and nobody could be forced to come back home, it is not possible,” he said.

    According to him, about 65 of those categories were rescued from the high seas recently and this is almost on weekly basis.

    “Some are still there as we speak, even among those that sent the video recorded have refused to be repatriated, so but we are still appealing to them to reconsider their steps,” he said.(NAN)

  • Foreign Minister calls for responsibility in migration row

    EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called on member states to take “more responsibility” for migrants rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, as the issue made its way onto the agenda of an EU defence ministers’ meeting in Vienna.

    Italy’s populist government has taken a hard-line stance on migration, refusing to disembark people rescued at sea unless other EU member states offer to take them in.

    The issue is threatening Operation Sophia, an EU naval operation to fight human trafficking off the coast of Libya, which is set to run until the end of the year.

    When it was established in 2015, member states agreed that any migrants rescued would be taken to Italy.

    Rome is now demanding a change to those rules, threatening to close its ports to Operation Sophia’s vessels otherwise.

    Mogherini, who is Italian, argued that the management of migration flow is a common European issue, not one for a single country.

    Read Also:Security, economy, migration to dominate Merkel’s visit

    “This is why we have a EU operation at sea and that is why I believe that, even if it’s a very difficult discussion, it would be good if member states consider taking more responsibility in this respect,” she said ahead of Thursday’s informal talks in Vienna.

    German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen appealed to Italy not to hijack Operation Sophia.

    “It is also a question of credibility and reliability of the European mission.

    “We brought it into being. It runs until the end of the year. And it must continue until the end of the year,” von der Leyen said.

  • Another 180 Nigerians return from Libya

    Another batch of 180 Nigerians will today return from Libya, in continuation of repatriation.

    This is as other Nigerians are awaiting deportation from Germany next Thursday.

    A source close to Aviation Security (AVSEC), a department under the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), told The Nation yesterday at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos that the returnees would be assisted back to the country by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which has been responsible for repatriation of Nigerians from Libya in recent time.

    The returnees will be received by officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

    The returnees are Nigerians, who had attempted to travel to Europe through the desert and Mediterranean Sea and other illegal channels, but were caught in the web of crisis that has engulfed Libya.

    The AVSEC source said the deportees would return to the country through the Lagos airport at 8pm through a chartered flight from Europe.

    Most of the deportees, it was gathered, are women, while no fewer than three of them have medical issues.

    About 2,000 Nigerians have returned from Libya in the past one year through the Lagos airport, with many of them lamenting their ugly treatment in the North African country.

    Recently, a batch of 171 Nigerians were returned from Libya for illegal migration.

    The returnees comprised 70 women, including nine expectant mothers, 90 men, three children and eight infants. Eight of them returned with bad health related issues.

    The returnees had arrived the cargo wing of the Lagos airport via Buraq Airline with registration number 5A-DMG about 8:25 pm and flight number UZ589. NEMA said the returnees were brought from Zintan District of Libya.

     

  • Another 180 Nigerians return from Libya

    In continuation of the repatriation of Nigerians from Libya, another batch of 180 citizens of the country will on Thursday return from the troubled North African countries.

    This is as another batch of Nigerians are awaiting deportation from Germany Thursday next week.

    A source close to Aviation Security (AVSEC), a department under the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) told our correspondent on Wednesday at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos that the returnees would be assisted back to the country by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which has been responsible for repatriation of Nigerians from Libya in recent time.

    The returnees would also be received by officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) at the airport.

    Read Also: Sultan to Nigerians: choose your leaders wisely

    The returnees are Nigerians who had attempted to travel to Europe through the desert and Mediterranean Seas and other illegal channels, but were caught in the web of crisis that has engulfed Libya in recent time.

    The AVSEC source said that the deportees would return to the country through the Lagos Airport at 8pm through a chartered flight from Europe.

    Most of the deportees it was learnt are female while no fewer than three of them have medical issues.

    No fewer than 2,000 Nigerians have returned from Libya in the past one year through the Lagos Airport with many of them lamenting their sordid treatment in the North African country.

    Just recently, a batch of 171 Nigerians were returned from Libya for illegal migration.

    The returnees comprised 70 female adults including nine pregnant women, 90 male adults, three Children and eight infants while eight of them returned to the country with bad health related issues.

    The returnees had arrived the cargo wing of the Lagos Airport via Buraq Airline with the registration number 5A-DMG at about 8:25 p.m and flight number UZ589. NEMA said that the returnees were brought from Zintan District of Libya.

  • Human Trafficking: Edo takes campaign to Abudu

    … urges residents to report traffickers

    The Edo State Commissioner for Justice/Attorney General of the state and Head of the State Taskforce against Human Trafficking and Illegal Migration, Professor Yinka Omorogbe, has urged Edo people and residents in Orhionmwon Local Government Area to report suspected human traffickers to the taskforce.

    The taskforce was established by Governor Godwin Obaseki in August 2017, to check the high incidence of human trafficking and illegal migration in the state

    At an advocacy programme organised by the task force in Abudu, headquarters of Orhionmwon Local Government Area, Prof. Omorogbe said the state government was fully committed to tackling human trafficking by creating jobs for youths in the state, urging residents in the area to report suspected traffickers to the taskforce for investigation and subsequent prosecution.

    “Human trafficking is a bad business. Don’t get involved or allow yourself to be trafficked by those looking for young men and women to be exploited. We are informing you so that you won’t learn the hard way. Many others who have gone and returned are gnashing their teeth now.

    “Our children undergo slavery there. We have records of thousands of Nigerians who were killed or missing in the Sahara Desert, Libya or Mediterranean Sea.

    Read Also: 2019: Edo APC battling with defection

    “But the traffickers don’t tell you the hard life your children undergo there; how they are kidnapped in connivance with them. Parents and other relations end up sending money from here to Libya. They only tell you their success stories that are not true. Beware of the antics of the traffickers,” Omorogbe told guests at the event.

    According to her, the state has received over 3,883 Libya returnees between November 2017 and July 2018, adding that Governor Godwin Obaseki was worried that more than half of the returnees from Libya were from the state, with Orhionmwon Local Government Area taking the lead in the state.

    The Commissioner for Arts, Culture, Tourism and Diaspora Affairs, Mr. Osaze Osemwegie-Ero, who also spoke at the advocacy programme, said the governor was working round the clock to change the narrative by investing massively in human capital development.

    Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Anti-Human Trafficking Issues, Mr Solomon Okoduwa, assured that the taskforce would sustain the campaign.

    Okoduwa urged parents, religious leaders as well as the international community to partner with the state government in the fight against human trafficking and illegal migration, noting, “We have over 4,000 Libya returnees as I speak, but we are saying this must not be allowed to continue.”

  • Edo pays Libya returnees N60.17m in 10 months

    Edo State Government said it has paid a total of N60, 170,000 as stipend to Libya returnees in the past ten months.

    The payment, it said, was made to different categories of returnees such S N20, 000 for single returnees, N25, 000 for pregnant returnees, and N10, 000 for children.

    It said a total of 3,883 Libya returnees were received between  November 2017 and August 2018.

    This was contained in a one year report on the activities of the State Taskforce Against Human trafficking.

    The document all the returnees have been profiled and registered in the data base of the taskforce.

    It said 415 of the returnees have been trained on various vocation/skill to enable them useful to the society.

    Read Also: We are hitting our 200,000 jobs target, Edo SSG

    “The payment is usually made to different categories of returnees in the following order; N20, 000 for single returnees, N25, 000 for pregnant returnees, and N10, 000 for children.

    “The first verification exercise was conducted on the 22nd of December, 2017, and the sun of N10.5 million was paid out to returnees in the state as first stipend.

    “Following the second verification exercise on the 9th of January, 2018, the sum of N31.7million was again paid as stipend to these returnees.

    “Then after the third verification exercise on 26th of April, 2018, a total sum of N17. 9 million was paid out as stipend.

    “This bring the total sum to N60, 170,000 (Sixty million, One Hundred and Seventy Thousand left Naira) has been paid out as stipends to the returnees. The payment of stipend is still ongoing,” it stated.

     

  • 87 migrants rescued off coast of Libya

    Spanish rescue boat “Open Arms” arrived in the southern port of Algeciras on Thursday with 87 migrants the crew said they had rescued off the coast of Libya.

    The charity Proactiva Open Arms operates in the sea between Libya and southern Europe in a mission aimed at aiding migrants who have found themselves in trouble during an attempt to cross the sea from northern Africa.

    The 87 people were rescued from an inflatable raft which was floating directionless with a broken motor in the open sea on Aug. 2, Open Arms said.

    Read Also:

    Those saved included 84 from the Sudan, a Syrian, an Egyptian and a Gambian. There were 12 children included in those saved, the group said.

    “We came across the raft where the people were in a very bad state and very afraid that we were a Libyan boat and we planned to return them to Libya,” Open Arms mission head Ricardo Gatti said during a news conference in Thursday.

    The charity says that migrants they have helped have said they fear if they were returned to Libya they could face imprisonment and torture and many have said they would rather die than be returned.

    In Spain, they will be processed before being granted refuge in Europe or they will be deported back to where they came from.

    Irregular immigration across the Mediterranean has fallen dramatically, with about 60,000 people making it to Europe across the sea to date this year compared to over a million in 2015, but politically it has become ever more divisive.

    According to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration, Spain has seen arrivals jump to 23,741 to August this year compared to just 8,677 in the same period in 2017 as countries such as Italy clamp down on arrivals along its coast.