EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell on Tuesday called for the strengthening of Operation Irini, the bloc’s naval mission in the Mediterranean Sea aimed at enforcing the UN arms embargo on Libya.
“Operation Irini has hailed ships, since it was launched, on more than 130 occasions,” Borrell said after a videoconference of EU defense ministers.
More than 100 in relation with the arms embargo, 29 in relation with the oil embargo,” he said.
“For sure, it can do more and better. But it is already delivering what it was set up for.”
Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez revealed that his country has become a strong regional player in oil exploration and extraction in Libya and other countries, adding that the head of the Tripoli-based “National Accord” government, Fayez al-Sarraj, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed developing cooperation between them in oil and natural gas exploration, during al-Sarraj’s last visit to Turkey in early June.
“The state-run oil company will start exploration activities in parts of the Mediterranean within three or four months, according to a memorandum signed between Turkey and the al-Sarraj government, in November 2019,” said Donmez, according to the website of the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.
Donmez added that Turkey has become “a strong regional player in oil exploration and extraction, not only in Libya, but in other regions of Africa, and in neighboring regions including Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Azerbaijan.”
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said on Tuesday it was concerned about the arrest, detention and ill-treatment of a large number of Egyptian nationals in the city of Tarhouna. The body said this was “in potential violation to Libya’s international human rights law obligations on the prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.”
Egypt said Monday it will take a firm stand after a video emerged of Egyptian workers being abused.
UNSMIL welcomed a statement released by the GNA’s interior ministry denouncing the video.
“On this issue and called on the local authorities in Tripoli to conduct a prompt investigation, to uncover their fate and whereabouts and to ensure their treatment in accordance with international standards.”
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has partnered up with the World Food Program (WFP) to provide about 10,000 Libyan-based refugees with emergency food kits in a move to step up humanitarian assistance for food security amid the pandemic, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday
“The help we’re providing under this project has come at a critical time and will be a lifesaver for some of the most vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers in urban areas,” Jean-Paul Cavalieri, the UNHCR’s chief of mission in Libya, was quoted as saying by the statement.
The NOC’s Sustainable Development Department, sponsored by the Italian company “ENI”, on Monday, 8 June 2020, provided the National Center for Disease Control with a PCR sample tester and operators for 5,000 tests to assist in making a sample test received by the laboratory from all parts of the country, and a number of 1,200 Rapid tests were delivered In order to perform the necessary tests when needed.
Accordingly and within the same day, at the National Oil Corporation warehouses, 2500 Coronavirus tests were delivered, for the benefit of the rapid serological survey committee formed by the Higher Scientific Consultative Committee to combat the Corona pandemic, headed by Dr. Muhammad Shambash, in support of its efforts to combat the spread of the epidemic.
The African Union Peace and Security Council has expressed its “grave concern” that the crisis in Libya continued, condemning foreign interference in the country’s affairs. At the end of the works of the 929th regular session of the Council, the participants expressed in a joint statement their “grave concern at the continued fighting in Libya which undermined efforts to combat the COVID 19 pandemic and also exacerbates the already unstable social and economic situation in the country, as well as exacerbates the suffering of migrants and refugees.”
The African Commission, chaired by Algeria, has also renewed its “strong condemnation of all forms of foreign interference in matters of peace and security, which undermines national sovereignty and peace efforts.”The African Commission also noted “the need to ensure that all external support for peace and security efforts on the continent is coordinated and well-directed towards achieving the goals and priorities of the African Union within the framework of the African Union’s agenda to silence guns in Africa.”
Libya’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced an increase of 13 new Coronavirus cases as well as 7 new recoveries. This brings Libya’s total cases to 467 and recoveries to 70.
5 new deaths were also reported over the weekend in the southern city of Sebha, bringing the country’s deaths to 10.
The new cases are spread across south Libya, and include cases that had mixed with old cases and new cases.
The NCDC blames the new spike on complacency and mistrust by the Libyan public. In the beginning of June, when it looked as if the spread of the virus was petering out, many Libyans started socialising and stopped social distancing.
The NCDC criticised the doubts aired by the sceptical Libyan public about the existence of Coronavirus or the degree of its spread. Equally, the mixed messages interpreted by the Libyan public of results of the Coronavirus test analyses led to the public questioning these results and a lack of adherence to quarantine, health guidelines, and adherence to curfews and social spacing.
This reached such an extent that the NCDC called on the security authorities and the Attorney General’s Office to query all those who question the NCDC’s laboratory results. It explained the confusion over what seem as contradictory lab results to the fact that some people have strong immune systems that can show that they are infected yet when they are re-tested after 24 hours they can show that they are free of infection.
About 12 migrants are believed to be missing, feared drowned after a boat carrying more than 30 mostly sub-Saharan African migrants capsized off the Libyan coast on Saturday. 20 of those on the boat were rescued.
The boat carrying the sub-Saharan migrants bound for Europe capsized about “six nautical miles” off the coast of Libya, not far from the port of Zawiya, said a tweet in Italian from organization Alarm Phone.
The small wooden boat with “32 people on board,” continued the tweet, was found by fishermen who managed to save 20 of those on board. “12 more are missing,” the survivors told the organization.
“The Libyan coastguard was not present,” said Alarm Phone, even though it is “being paid by the EU to patrol the coasts to prevent people fleeing,” tweeted the distress hotline. Alarm Phone said that they had been told there were two children among those missing.
The EU on Tuesday called for an immediate and independent investigation into the mass graves discovered near Tarhuna, northwestern Libya.
More than 150 bodies, including women and children, were exhumed from the graves close to Haftar’s last stronghold.
“An immediate independent investigation should be undertaken to verify these findings and bring those responsible to justice,” Peter Stano, chief spokesperson of the EU External Action Service, said in a statement on Tuesday.
