Tag: Libya

SOS Méditerranée has reacted with anger to news the government of Gibraltar is to strip the Aquarius vessel it uses to ferry migrants to Europe of its registration.

Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte is considering sending a frigate warship to Libya to save three Filipinos and a South Korean man kidnapped from a water plant in the troubled country.

CAIRO (AP) — Libya’s coast guard intercepted three groups totaling more than 570 Europe-bound migrants, including at least 66 women and 19 children, in the Mediterranean Sea, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Britain’s Royal Navy rescued from Libya the Islamic State suicide bomber who killed 22 at a concert in Manchester last year, bringing him from the war zone back to the UK, after he had been flagged as a potential threat.

Between Monday and Tuesday, the Libyan Coast Guard reportedly rescued 611 migrants aboard several dinghies off the coast and took them back to the African mainland.

The European Commission has proposed giving member states cash incentives for countries which agree to set up reception centres for migrants picked up in the Mediterranean sea.

Italy’s populist government has rejected the European Union’s (EU) latest migration plan, refusing to take in illegal migrants travelling by sea, as Libya rejects processing centres inside its borders.

China’s state-owned Global Times praised Beijing this week for convincing the United Nations-backed government of Libya to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to join the Asian giant’s massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), claiming the project will fill the security vacuum left behind by the West.

Spain leads European nations for new migrant arrivals in 2018 according to a new report from the International Organization for Migrants (IOM).

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has made clear his strong stance on unlimited mass migration after he refused to take part in an EU-wide effort to distribute the migrants of a fishing boat that landed on an Italian island Monday.

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) used the deadly 2012 terror attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, to shut down fellow committee member Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) during Capitol Hill hearing questioning of FBI agent Peter Strzok Thursday.

African migrants who thought they would be denied passage to Europe became violent and threatened to kill the crew of an Italian supply ship that had rescued them.

Europe’s problems with criminal trafficking gangs and illegal immigration are getting worse, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned, just days after the United Nations (UN) claimed that boat arrivals were “necessary” for the continent.

The Libya correspondent for the French newspaper Le Monde has claimed the country could have as many as 700,000 to one million asylum seekers with many waiting to come to Europe.

Italy’s new anti-establishment Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini jetted to Libya to strike a deal with the UN-backed government to combat people-smugglers and illegal immigration.

The Libyan government launched airstrikes on Sunday against a militia group that was attempting to seize the oil terminals at Ras Lanuf and el-Sidr, two key port cities for the Libyan oil industry.

In the wake of President Trump’s foreign policy triumph with North Korea, Never Trump is going insane. But this time, the word “insane” is not a term of art.

Left-wing mayors in Italian coastal cities courted outrage Sunday as they defied the democratic will of the Italian people to throw open their ports to a migrant delivery ship carrying 629 illegals, despite the newly elected national government having ordered it be turned away.

ROME (AP) – A private ‘rescue’ ship carrying 629 migrants remained Sunday evening on a northward course in the Mediterranean Sea after more than a day of not receiving permission to dock in either Italy or the small island nation of Malta.

Russia is backing both major warring sides in Libya, the fighters loyal to the prominent warlord who controls most of the east and the United Nations-backed government in the western part of the African country, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Thursday.

Representatives of the warring factions that control portions of chaotic Libya tentatively agreed to hold national elections on December 10 during a conference in Paris on Tuesday. They also resolved to make progress toward drafting a constitution by September.

After a period of relative calm, African migrants have begun arriving en masse into Italy once again, crossing through Tunisia now that Libya has become virtually impassable.

The European Commission has slammed Italian efforts to clamp down on open borders NGOs ferrying people to Europe as “deplorable”, insisting the nation should prioritise ‘helping migrants’. Brussels’ appeal came amidst a three-day standoff which saw people “stranded” at sea

ROME (AP) — Seventeen Nigerian survivors of a 2017 migrant boat sinking have filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights accusing Italy of violating their human rights by “subcontracting” their rescue to Libya.

In an interview with Fox News conducted from a prison run by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces coalition, former ISIS fighter Hamza Nmeie warned that the Islamic State’s ideology will survive the collapse of the “caliphate” and inspire new groups obsessed with defeating the United States.

Gen. Khalifa Haftar, a military strongman who leads an army that controls most of eastern Libya, returned to his seat of power in the war-ravaged African country following rumors that he was dead this week as he received medical treatment in Paris for about 20 days.

An estimated 150 former Guantánamo Bay prisoners liberated as part of former President Barack Obama’s efforts to shut down the U.S. military detention center “risk being killed — or could end up becoming threats themselves,” the New York Times (NYT) acknowledged this week.

A mosque in Devon, England has admitted taking funds from a radical cleric who backed al-Qaeda aligned militia groups in Libya, describing him as “a highly respected member of the community”.

The potential absence of former Gen. Khalifa Haftar, a military strongman who leads the prominent Libyan National Army (LNA), could create a power vacuum and fuel the chaotic conditions that have allowed jihadist groups to remain active in the North African country, according to several experts.

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) remains a “potent” menace in Libya more than a year after U.S.-backed local forces pushed the group out of former stronghold Sirte, experts told a House panel.

Some Netflix users have pledged to boycott the popular streaming service after they announced the appointment of former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice to the company’s board of directors.

During his U.S. visit, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman renewed his calls for the U.S. to fully withdraw from the nuclear Iran deal, saying the accord would not prevent Iran’s regime from acquiring nuclear weapons and likened it to “waiting for the bullet to reach your head.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has reportedly carried out America’s first ever drone strikes targeting al-Qaeda terrorists in jihadi breeding ground Libya last weekend, suggesting a possible expansion of the United States mission in the war-ravaged nation.

Hamman Forjani received a short 21-month sentence for brutally attacking a pregnant woman, kicking her so hard he left shoe imprints on her face.

WASHINGTON, DC — The American armed forces are maintaining surveillance over “Chinese encroachment and emergent military presence” in the African country of Djibouti, home to Beijing’s first overseas naval base, the top U.S. commander in the continent told lawmakers.