In a new report on the July 2019 airstrikes in Libya that killed at least 53 migrants and refugees at the Tajoura detention centre – one of the deadliest incidents since a new round of hostilities broke out in April 2019 – the UN renewed its call on all parties of the conflict to conduct independent, impartial and thorough investigations to ensure accountability for violations of international law.
The 13-page report, published today by the UN Support Mission in Libya and the UN Human Rights Office, also calls for urgent action to prevent a similar tragedy from happening in a conflict in which at least 287 civilians were killed and some 369 civilians injured in 2019, with 60 percent of these casualties attributed to airstrikes.
The report finds that on 2 July, an air-delivered bomb struck a vehicle repair workshop operated by the Daman Brigade, an armed group allied with Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA).
A second airstrike 11 minutes later hit the Tajoura Detention Centre, a large hangar located in the same complex where 616 migrants and refugees were held. The second section of the hangar, where 126 people were detained took a direct hit, killing at least 47 men and six boys.
“The July 2019 attack at Tajoura is a tragic example of how the use of air power became a dominant feature in Libya’s civil conflict, and of the dangers and direct consequences on civilians of foreign interference,” claimed Ghassan Salame.
The report stressed that UNSMIL repeatedly called for the closure of all migrant detention centres in Libya, where UN human rights staff documented severe overcrowding, torture, ill-treatment, forced labour, rape, and acute malnutrition, among other serious human rights violations. Urgent priority should be given to closing centres in or next to compounds controlled by parties to the conflict.
Following the airstrikes in July, all migrants and refugees were released from the Tajoura Detention Centre. On 1 August 2019, the GNA announced its intention to close three detention centres, including Tajoura. However, according to the latest information they received, the Tajoura Detention Centre remains open.
