Migrants in Libya killed by fighting between rivals: MSF

Migrants and refugees were shot and wounded in a detention center south of Tripoli as Libyan fighters fought for control of the capital, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said Friday.

Clashes between Libya-based union forces in Libya and fighters of military commander Khalifa Haftar have been raging since April 4, when the strongman launched an badault on his troops. To seize the capital.

The UN and international NGOs warned that thousands of migrants and refugees who had fled violence at home and were now trapped in Libyan detention centers were facing enormous dangers and had to to be evacuated.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said Wednesday it evacuated 325 asylum seekers from Qasr Bin Ghashir detention center a day after the attack on refugees and migrants. We did not know who had committed the badault.

"Although there were no gunshot wounds, 12 refugees suffered physical badault that required treatment at the hospital," a statement said.

On Friday, MSF said that an "badysis of existing photographic and video evidence by MSF doctors concluded that the injuries presented were consistent with gunshot wounds".

"These observations are also corroborated by numerous testimonies from refugees and migrants who witnessed the event and who reported being brutally and indiscriminately attacked with the help of firearms" said the newspaper.

MSF published a video showing several people bleeding from what appeared to be a bullet in the legs and other parts of the body.

"To say that we have been outraged is an understatement," said Karline Kleijer, head of emergency programs at MSF, in a statement.

"The simple condemnation of violence against migrants and refugees only makes sense if the international community immediately takes steps to evacuate the remaining thousands of people."

MSF said more than 700 unarmed men, women and children were stranded in the Qasr Bin Ghashir detention center.

The watchdog said residents of the center had been transferred Wednesday and Thursday to another detention camp located west of Tripoli.

"Although they are no longer in the immediate vicinity of the fighting, people are still subject to dangerous and degrading conditions and a rapidly changing conflict dynamic that continues to threaten all those held in detention centers. in Tripoli and the surrounding area, "warned the office.

Human Rights Watch also sounded the alarm.

According to the same source, two migrants from a detention center in the eastern suburbs of Tripoli and a third arrested in the center of the capital reportedly said that armed men forced them to work for them.

In one case, two inmates said they were ordered to repair military vehicles and "load, unload and clean weapons," including machine guns, HRW said.

Libya, long a major transit route for migrants desperately seeking to reach Europe, is home to around 6,000 migrants who are held in official detention centers, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Hundreds of others are being held by armed groups elsewhere in the war – torn country.