Dutch Ambassador, Eric Strating, and UNDP Libya Country Director, Noura Hamladji, signed an agreement on Friday which will see The Netherlands investing US$ 1.65 million in a program to enhance safety and security and promote the rule of law in Tripoli and beyond. The Dutch project aims at enhancing national capacities to increase safety and security in Tripoli and assisting the Libyan Ministries of Interior and Justice in improving the law enforcement, prison services, local police and criminal justice institutions in the Libyan capital. The project is expected to be implemented in other cities across the country.
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The African Union has called on the Libyan authorities to investigate what was referred to as "slave markets" of African migrants who were trying to reach Europe via Libyan territory. The request comes after a CNN report showing black migrants being traded in a public auction in Libya to work as servants in rural areas. Guinean President and AU Chairman, Alpha Conde, has called for investigations and prosecutions of what he called "a heinous trade of past times."
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An official of the Libyan Football Federation has declared that the Libyan national football team will play the opening match of the Kenya Friendly Football Tournament on the third of December according to the modified schedule of the tournament. The official explained that after the amendment of the tournament table, Libya is to face Tanzania on the third of December after the pullout of the Sudanese and Somali teams. This amendment also placed Libya in Group A together with the home team Kenya, in addition to Tanzania, Rwanda, and Zanzibar.
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A doctor at Sabha Medical Center, south Libya, was kidnapped by an armed group on Friday. The information office of the center stated that Dr. Salem al-Salhab was abducted near the Municipal Guard building while leaving the clinic of Fezzan at 7 pm local time. No further details were given. The center appealed to the authorities responsible to counter such repeated practices that threaten the medical staff.
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A US drone carried out an air strike in the Libyan desert on Friday targeting members of ISIS group, Fox News reported. The airstrike has been the first since September, the channel quoted an unidentified Pentagon official as saying. According to the US official, the airstrike led to the killing of several of ISIS militants without specifying the number.
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The United Nations envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salama, has said that the current Libyan institutions will continue working and that the country is not ready for elections. In a statement to AFP, he added that the country is not ready yet for any elections due to the lack of appropriate technical, political and security conditions, which are not available today. He pointed out that the political prerequisite for holding elections is to obtain a commitment from the main actors that the principle is to replace one person with another, and not add one person to another, noting that the 2014 elections did not see a political exchange, instead it added to the previous parliament a new one.
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US Deputy Secretary of State, John Sullivan, said Saturday that the political agreement is the only framework for the political process in Libya. According to the Press Office of Chairman of Presidential Council Fayaz Serraj, Sullivan made clear that the international community will stand against any attempt to destabilize the situation in Libya and will hold accountable anyone who disrupts the political process led by the United Nations, directing a "firm" message to those who claim that the political process ends in December. Sullivan reaffirmed his country's full support for the efforts of the United Nations and its envoy to Libya Ghassan Salama, and its intention to safeguard and foster Salama’s initiative to lead the political process to a presidential and parliamentary elections.
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The Libyan Red Crescent (LRC), Sirte branch, has found a mass grave in Al-Dahir district, 16 km west of the city. A source from the LRC said that the body removal team has identified the mass grave site with remains of an unknown number of bodies. He pointed out that the team already placed a red tape around the grave until they obtain the permission of the Prosecutor’s Office and the military room to exhume the bodies. The mass grave is not the first to be found in the neighborhoods of Sirte after the military campaign launched last year in the city by Al-Bunyan Al-Marsous on ISIS.
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