Why Attack On Libya Detention Center – OpEd

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The bombing of a Libyan migrant detention center that left more than 44 dead and more than 130 severely injured, the United Nations describing the attack as “a war crime and odious bloody carnage”.

The center that was bombed by two airstrikes in the east of Tripoli was housing in the early hours of Wednesday morning and left the detention center a charred ruin. The LNA had on Monday warned that it was stepping up air raids on the capital in response to recent military reverses, the result of the bombing left more than 610 people died.

Libya’s UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Italian interior minister, Matteo Salvini, blamed Khalifa Haftar about the bombing they said that since April 4, 2019 hundreds of people have died.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, called for an independent investigation into the “outrageous” bombing. UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the secretary general condemned “this horrendous incident in the strongest terms”.

They claimed that Haftar was responsible for that bombing because the detention center is close to a military supply depot for militia working to protect the GNA.

But Gen Khaled el-Mahjoub, a spokesman for the LNA, denied targeting the detention center, saying “We didn’t give orders to target the shelter,” he also mention that we had warned that as part of “exhausting all traditional means” to capture Tripoli, LNA would conduct “strong and decisive airstrikes” against select targets.

A few month ago, the UN refugee agency had previously called for people to be removed from the detention center in Tajoura, they mention we are expressing fears that they were likely to be victims of air raids being mounted by Haftar’s air force.

Ghassan Salamé UN special envoy for Libya said,“This attack clearly could constitute a war crime, as it killed by surprise innocent people whose dire conditions forced them to be in that shelter,” and we will put pressure on Haftar’s backers, notably the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, to withdraw their support, or at least demand an end to the nightly air raids.

Now Libya is in danger. Every day many innocent people die. Will Libya keep Libya a desert land for terrorist groups to enjoy its oil wealth?

Keep that question in mind … for time and we will see what happens tomorrow.

*Miral Sabry Al Ashry , Associate Professor at Future University (FUE), Political Mass Media Department

Prof. Miral Sabry AlAshry

Prof. Miral Sabry AlAshry is Co-lead for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at the Centre for Freedom of the Media, the Department of Journalism Studies at the University of Sheffield.

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