UN calls for ceasefire in Libya after 1,000 deaths in three months

The UN Security Council on Friday (July 5th) condemned the air raid, which killed some 50 people at the beginning of the week in a Libyan detention center for migrants near the capital Tripoli, and demanded the 'a ceasefire.

"Security Council members stress the need for all parties to urgently de-escalate and commit to a ceasefire," says Security Council statement Wednesday after the massacre .

According to the UN, the July 2 air strike killed 53 migrants including six children held in a center in Tajoura, a suburb of Tripoli, in the hands of the Fayez al-Sarraj National Union Government (NNA), recognized by the 'UN. The latter accused the forces of Marshal Khalifa Haftar of the strike, but they denied.

Since 4 April, the troops of Marshal Haftar, the strongman of eastern Libya, are engaged in a military offensive to seize Tripoli where headquarters of the GNA.

The fighting on the ground and air raids in the Battle of Tripoli have also pushed, according to the UN, more than 100,000 people to flight, in a country undermined since 2011 by power struggles and delivered to militias that make the law.

Migrants and refugees in danger

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 1,000 people were killed and more than 5,000 wounded in the violence at the gates of Tripoli.

The Security Council is also concerned about the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Libya and - a new development in relation to its previous statements - calls on the UN Member States "not to intervene in the conflict and not to take measures that aggravate it ".

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), "350 migrants, including 20 women and four children, would still be detained" in the center of Tajoura, one of five hangars hit hard by the strike was destroyed .

UN agencies and humanitarian organizations have repeatedly expressed concern about the plight of thousands of migrants and refugees "at risk in detention centers near combat zones".

The UN and NGOs also regularly remind their opposition to the fact that migrants arrested at sea are brought back to Libya, where they are placed "arbitrarily detained" or at the mercy of militias.

With AFP