Women, men, and children held in nightmarish detention centers in Libya face an even greater risk to life and limb as rival factions escalate their fight for the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
“Please try to help us to be evacuated from this critical situation,” the message popped up on my mobile phone. In struggling English, the plea continued: “Our is full of suffering such as starvation, frightened sound of weapons, working as military by force and sickness….”
They have told me their fears of retaliation for giving me information—which is why I won’t say their names or nationalities—and begged me to help them. A 16-year-old who’s been in detention for a year said he was talking to me from the toilet because he was so frightened of being caught with a phone.
Last year, I visited four detention centers, in the system nominally under the control of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord , where everyone caught trying to reach Europe by sea by the EU-supported Libyan Coast Guard is incarcerated, along with many who didn't even make it that far.
While the United Nations has called for a humanitarian truce, General Hiftar has urged his fighters to persevere during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on May 5, and the prime minister of the besieged GNA, Fayaz al-Sarraj, is asking for more help from Europe to repel the attack.
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