The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Libyan

  • Five new Libyan players to face Eagles

    Libya National Team coach, Adel Amrouche has said that he will name up to five new faces in his squad to face the Super Eagles in a 2019 Africa Nations Cup qualifier tentatively scheduled to be staged at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna on October 12.

    According to Libyan newspaper Al Wasat, Libya manager, Hussein Fritais, has confirmed that the squad for the match with Nigeria has not been announced but he has indicated that a minimum of four changes will be made.

    ”There may be changes in the number of players, four of five, which is a reference to coach Adel Amrouche who will announce the list,” Hussein said in a television interview on Monday.

    ”A preparatory camp will be held in Tunisia before the first leg with Nigeria.”

    Hussien also announced that a chartered flight would take the Libyan team to Nigeria and that a victory over the Super Eagles especially in the second leg in Tunis will be the key to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations.

    The Mediterranean Knights top Group E of the 2019 AFCON qualifiers with four points ahead of their double-header against the Super Eagles.

     

  • ‘Nigerian ladies in detention camp were raped by Libyan officials’

    ‘Nigerian ladies in detention camp were raped by Libyan officials’

    Nigerian returnees from Libya have appealed to federal and state governments to provide job opportunities for Nigerian youths to prevent them from endangering their lives looking for greener pasture abroad.

    Some of the returnees told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos, that they decided to leave the country because they were jobless.

    They said that they travelled to Libya with the hope of crossing to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea in search of jobs.

    NAN recalls that on Feb.14, 161 Nigerians returned voluntarily from Libya.

    They were assisted back home by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) after being detained for several months in Libyan detention facilities.

    They arrived in Lagos singing songs of praise and beaming with smiles, thanking their creator for bringing them safely home.

    One of the returnees, Miss Bridget Akeamo, an indigene of Anambra, said her parents decided to send her to Italy when all hope of securing job after her school proved abortive.

    Akeama, who said she left Nigeria in August last year, returned with four months pregnancy.

    She said she was arrested while trying to cross to Italy from Libya by immigration officials.

    Akeama said: “Ever since then, I have been moved from one prison to another until I was taken to detention camp in Tripoli.

    “We were subjected to inhuman treatment while in prison, from the food we eat to the water we drink.

    “Most of the young ladies in detention camp were raped by Libyan officials and if you refused their advances, it will be hell for you.

    “Thank God I am back in Nigeria, I know all hope is not lost but it is painful that I will begin from scratch again with my unborn child.”

    Stanley Iduh, 34-year-old indigene of Delta, told NAN that he was tricked by an agent popularly known as “Burger that he would facilitate his journey to Spain through Libya.

    He said that when his hope of crossing into Spain was dashed in Libya, he decided to stay back and work in the Arab country.

    “I worked in Tile producing company and their salary was good but unfortunately I cannot save my money in the bank.

    “I lived with other Nigerians. I dug a hole in the ground to save my money.

    “Unfortunately, one day, some Libyans came, kidnapped us and inflicted punishment on us.

    “They asked us to call our relations back in Nigeria and tell them to send N300, 000 as our ransom.

    “The 200, 000 US dollars that I saved, disappeared; they moved us to another place until we got to detention camp.

    “Nigerians should be discouraged from travelling to Libya because they are not treating us like human beings.

    “Our ladies were dehumanised by Libyan officials, it is very painful,” he said.

    Iduh, who said he sold the house left by his late father before travelling to Libya, urged the federal and state governments as well as wealthy Nigerians to create job for the youths.

    “It was because I was jobless for three years that I was cajoled to travel abroad to look for greener pasture.

    “I am back in the country after eight months, devastated and humiliated.

    “I have gone to look for greener pasture but here I am today; I have brought nothing green back home,” he said with tears running in his cheek.

    Paul and Marvellous Isikhuemhen are twin brothers who travelled to Libya in March and May 2016 respectively in search for greener pasture.

    Marvellous told NAN that they regretted travelling out of the country because of the bitter encounter they had in Libya.

    He said that though they secured good job in publishing house in Libya, “it was suffering and smiling’’ until they were given the opportunity to return home through IOM.

    Isikhuemhen urged the Nigerian government to stop young ladies from travelling to Libya, saying they were molested by Libyan immigration officials.

    He said that most Nigerian ladies bribe Nigerian Immigration Officers to secure travel documents to travel to Libya.

    Isikhuemhen added that most of the children brought back home by these ladies had no fathers.

    “I can boldly tell you that the children you are seeing in their hands and those pregnant ladies are products of Libya immigration officers,” he said. (NAN)

  • Libya in shock after Tripoli airport attack

    Libya in shock after Tripoli airport attack

    Libyans are stunned after two days of fighting between rival militias leaves the country’s main international airport out of action.

    At least eight people have died in the clashes and 12 planes were damaged.

    The airport remains in the hands of the Zintan militia which has controlled it since Muammar Gaddafi was ousted.

    The government has been unable to disarm the numerous armed groups that took part in the 2011 uprising and which have divided the country.

    All flights to and from the airport have been suspended until at least Wednesday.

    The BBC’s Rana Jawad in Tripoli says the airport’s control tower has been damaged, along with fuel tanks and service areas, while the customs house has been completely destroyed.

    Government spokesman Ahmed Lamine said that 90% of the planes stationed at the airport had been damaged.

    He said the government was considering a request for “international forces to enhance security”.

    “This would give the government time to build the state and institutions,” he added.

    On Sunday, militia including members of the Islamist Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room (LROR) tried to seize control of the airport from the Zintan militia.

    The extent of the damage to the airport is not yet clear but some say it could take months before it reopens.

    Very little shocks Libyans these days, but the latest attack on this vital lifeline has left many at a loss for words. They didn’t think any militia would ever go that far – it was raining Grad rockets across the airport and its surrounding area.

    Residents nearby have been terrified. Those who have the option to move to safer areas have – but most can’t.

    One Libyan said it reminded her of the sanctions in the 1990s – when Libya was a pariah state under Col Gaddafi, cut off from much of the world and going abroad meant a boat or a road trip before possibly boarding a plane elsewhere.

    The government says it is considering the possibility of requesting an international force – it could be an empty threat to gain more leverage on all the militias – but it could also be that they feel they have run out of options. A bigger, more powerful force is needed to subdue all the armed groups – that would take an army that Libya doesn’t have.

    The Zintan militia remains in charge of the airport

    Those planes which were relatively unscathed will still not be flying for some time

     

  • Massive jailbreak reported in Libyan city

    A massive jail break took place at the Sebha correctional facility, 800 km south of Tripoli, the Libyan capital, an official spokesperson of the local council, Abobker Hanza, said.

    Hanza said all the 170 prisoners in the facility were involved in the prison break, explaining that the incident took place after clashes on Tuesday between inmates turned into a mayhem.

    Hanza, however, said that many of those who escaped had surrendered voluntarily to prison guards on Tuesday evening, while security forces have arrested many others.

    He indicated that many more prisoners were still on the run.

    PANA recalls that an earlier Sebha prison break took place last month when prisoners rioted because of the deteriorating security situation in the city, as unidentified gunmen attacked the prison, killing a policeman and injuring many others.

    Sources say that the Rachada prison in the city of Gharyana, 80 km South of Tripoli, last week recorded its own jail break with 170 illegal immigrants from different African countries involved.