Libya: An airstrike has hit a detention centre mainly for the African migrants in a suburb of the Libyan capital of Tripoli. 40 people were killed, an official said. This detention also wounded 80 people.
Thousands of migrants are detained in Libya after being apprehended by local forces funded by the European Union and are now caught up in the armed conflict. The centers have limited food and other supplies, and international agencies have called for speeding up resettlement of the migrants.
The Tripoli-based government said in a statement that dozens of people had been killed and wounded in an airstrike blamed on the “war criminal Khalifa Haftar.”
Osama Ali, a spokesman for the emergency services, told AFP that 120 migrants had been in a hangar which was directly hit by the strike in Tajoura. He added that more people may have been killed because the death toll so far was “a preliminary assessment”.
Libya has became a major crossing point for migrants to Europe after the 2011 ouster and killing of Gadhafi, when the North African nation was thrown into chaos, armed militias proliferated and central authority fell apart.
