Libya Condemns 'Death Smugglers' after Migrant Shipwreck
The foreign minister of Libya's internationally recognized government condemned on Tuesday "death smugglers" who organized the doomed voyage to Europe that left an estimated 800 dead in a shipwreck.
"The migrants left from areas under the control of militia. We condemn the acts of these death smugglers," Mohamed al-Dayri told AFP in a telephone interview from Indonesia where he is attending an Asia-Africa summit.
Leaders in Europe and Africa have highlighted the chaos in Libya as providing a safe haven for traffickers who lure migrants from all over Africa hoping to make the perilous boat journey to Europe.
Libya has been riven by conflict since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi, with rival governments and parliaments and armed groups now battling to control its cities and oil wealth.
Several jihadist groups in Libya have also pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group which has seized chunks of Syria and Iraq.
Dayri also condemned the killing of at least 28 Christian Ethiopians by IS, which released a video of their execution in Libya on Sunday.
He said the solution to such crimes was to "form a national unity government, which is more urgent than ever."
Libya has an elected parliament and an internationally recognized government based in the far eastern city of Tobruk, and a rival government and legislature backed by Islamists in Tripoli.
Dayri urged the international community to put pressure on Tripoli delegates taking part in U.N.-led peace talks in Skhirat in Morocco to form a unity government.
Earlier, Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso said Tuesday Europe and Africa must work together to solve the chaos in Libya if they want to curb the migrant flow that has seen thousands drown in the Mediterranean.
"Nearly 1,000 Africans at the bottom of the Mediterranean (in one week): silence is no longer possible," Nguesso told French radio Europe 1.
He said Africans were the worst affected by the long list of shipwrecks that have claimed over 1,700 lives this year.
"The fundamental question that must be addressed is Libya," he said, adding the crisis in that country must be "seriously taken in hand. Europe and Africa must work together to solve the problem."
The latest sinking of a migrant ship, in which 800 are feared to have drowned, left from Libya on Saturday. A week earlier another 400 died when their vessel capsized off the Libyan coast.
The chaos in Libya has provided fertile ground for people smugglers who lure migrants from all over Africa with the promise of getting them to Europe -- a perilous boat ride away.
"The Libyan State must exist. If it existed and functioned normally I think we would better contain these criminals," said Nguesso, urging the African Union to meet on the immigration crisis.
Source: Agence France Presse
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