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CAIRO (AP) A rubber boat carrying dozens of Europe-bound migrants sank off the coast of Libya and at least 55 people drowned, including women and children, the U.N. migration agency said Wednesday. It was the latest tragedy in this part of the Mediterranean Sea, a key route for migrants.

The International Organization for Migration said the disaster took place on Tuesday. The boat was carrying at least 60 migrants and had set off from the coastal town of Garabouli, east of Libyas capital, Tripoli.

The agency said five migrants survived the shipwreck and were brought back to shore by the Libyan coast guard. It was not immediately clear what happened to the vessel.

Safa Msehli, an IOM spokesperson, said the boat capsized a short while after leaving Garabouli. She said the Libyan coast guard has so far retrieved the bodies of nine men and a child.

The five survivors include four men three Pakistanis and one Egyptian and a Syrian child, Msehli told The Associated Press.

The was the latest tragedy in the central Mediterranean Sea, a key route for migrants. The IOM said at least 537 people have drowned or gone missing in migrant disasters in the Mediterranean off Libya so far this year, while over 4,300 have been intercepted and returned to shore.

Earlier this month, the IOMs Missing Migrants Project said that the first quarter of this year was the deadliest in the Central Mediterranean since 2017, with at least 441 documented deaths.

That number, however, is likely an undercount of the true number of lives lost, the agency said, adding that it was still investigating several other unreported shipwrecks where the fate of more than 300 people onboard remain unclear.

In 2022, at least 529 migrants were reported dead and 848 people were missing off Libya, while over 24,680 were intercepted and returned to the chaos-hit North African country, according to the IOM.

Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East trying to make it to Europe. The oil-rich country plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Human traffickers in recent years have benefited from the chaos in Libya, smuggling in migrants across the countrys lengthy borders with six nations. The migrants are crowded into ill-equipped vessels, including rubber boats, and set off on risky sea voyages.

Those who are intercepted and returned to Libya are held in government-run detention centers rife with abuses, including forced labor, beatings, rapes and torture practices that amount to crimes against humanity, according to U.N.-commissioned investigators.

The abuse often accompanies efforts to extort money from families of those held, before the migrants are allowed to leave Libya on traffickers boats.

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UN says at least 55 migrants drowned in shipwreck off Libya - The Associated Press

Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, commander-in-chief of the Libyan army, delivered a speech at the headquarters of the Libyan Army General Command in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. During the meeting, Haftar pointed out that one of the reasons for the crisis in Libya is the lack of a fair distribution of wealth.

Haftar stressed that the Libyan people are in a critical situation, suffering from hunger and tired of the deliberate manipulation of their wealth and capabilities. He stressed that the situation must be reconsidered and that wealth must be distributed fairly before it is too late. The crisis in Libya has been caused by several factors, such as lack of security, the presence of armed groups, corruption and lack of leadership. However, the lack of a fair distribution of wealth has also been a key factor in the deteriorating situation in the country.

It is important that leaders and officials in Libya work to address this critical issue and commit to implementing policies that ensure a fair distribution of wealth in the country. By doing so, they can help alleviate the poverty and suffering of the Libyan population and build a modern and prosperous state.

Khalifa Haftar, he said, put his finger on a deep wound that has long afflicted Libyans. This situation has worsened following the divisions that have hit Libya since 2014 and their aftermath, especially after the fragmentation of economic institutions between the east and west of the country. During his meeting with military leaders and officers at the headquarters of the army's General Command in Benghazi, Haftar called on the authorities to provide job opportunities for Libyan youth and to ensure an equitable distribution of the country's oil wealth.

Libyan economist Murad Al-Sabri pointed out in an interview with Al-Ain News that the unfair distribution of wealth is one of the most important causes of the economic crisis in Libya. This crisis has affected the majority of the Libyan population, who are in a difficult situation and can no longer put up with irresponsible behaviour and manipulation of their wealth and capabilities.

Murad Al-Sabri explained that the crisis of the unfair distribution of wealth in Libya dates back decades, when the Gaddafi regime concentrated the main economic institutions in the capital, Tripoli, marginalising the rest of the country. After Gaddafi's overthrow, the situation continued and the party that controlled Tripoli benefited from the central situation, controlling the country's wealth. The National Oil Corporation, managed by the article Mustafa Sanallah, pours the money from the sale of oil exclusively into the Central Bank of Tripoli, led by Al-Siddik Al-Kabeer, which has caused the problem of unfair distribution of Libya's wealth. Libyan army commander Khalifa Haftar put his hand on this old wound to seek a solution.

Libyan writer Serageldin Belkhair commented that the international community is working to resolve the crisis, but at a slow pace. He stressed that Field Marshal Haftar's speech is addressed to the international community, which is creating a mechanism to ensure a fair distribution of Libya's wealth. He also mentioned the importance of finding a solution before it is too late. The Berlin Conference on Libya, held in January 2020, created an international committee including an Economic Committee, which met in February of that year to discuss the importance of transparent public finances and to review the reunification of the Central Bank of Libya, which is currently divided into the east and west of the country.

The rest is here:
The unequal distribution of wealth: an open scar in Libya - Atalayar

Libya is participating with a delegation of business leaders in the tenth edition of the Arab Chinese Businessmens Conference and the eighth edition of the Investments Symposium. The event will be held from 22 to 24 May in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

It will be jointly organized by the Union of Arab Chambers, the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, the Ministry of Investment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Chinese Council for the Development International Trade (CCPIT).

The Libyan business delegation consists of business leaders who have previously cooperated with Chinese companies or who wish to establish new partnerships by getting to know Chinese business leaders and their companies participating in the conference.

Many businesses have commercial dealings with Chinese counterpartsCommenting on the Libyan participation, President of the General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Mohamed Al-Raied, confirmed to Libya Herald that there are many business leaders in Libya that have commercial dealings with Chinese companies or represent Chinese brands in Libya.

China one of the top trading partners with LibyaHe added that the volume of trade between Libya and China comes in an advanced rank together with Turkey, Italy, Tunisia and Egypt. He said Libyan businesses import a lot of commodities, most notably electrical and household appliances, communications and information technology, workshop equipment and auto spare parts, in addition to the entry of Chinese cars among the commodities supplied from China.

There are also several Chinese companies that worked in the field of infrastructure, housing, the railway project, and several development projects during the past decades, which the Libyan state seeks to restart.

The event comes within the framework of supporting and strengthening Arab-Chinese relations and following up on the implementation of the executive programme of the Arab-Chinese Cooperation Forum for 2020-2022. It also comes within the implementation of the decision of the 158th session of the Arab League Council at the level of Arab foreign ministers, which stresses the importance of effective Arab participation in the various activities and events of the Arab-Chinese Cooperation Forum.

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Libyan business leaders participate in the Arab Chinese ... - Libya Herald

Earlier this year the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi reported that about 2.5 tonnes of uranium ore concentrate had gone missing from a site in Libya. This was arguably one of the largest quantity of uranium ore concentrate that had ever been misplaced.

Barely a day after the IAEAs announcement, General Khaled Mahjoub of the self-styled Libyan National Army said the uranium ore had been found about 5km from the warehouse where it had been stored. A week later, the IAEA, which had been monitoring the stockpile occasionally, confirmed that most of the uranium ore concentrate had been found.

Uranium ore concentrate, popularly known as yellowcake, is a type of uranium concentrate powder obtained after uranium ore has been milled and chemically processed. Yellowcake has very low radioactivity, equivalent to the radioactivity of uranium ore found in nature, and it is produced by all countries where uranium ore is mined.

Yellow cake is further processed to become enriched uranium, which is used to manufacture the fuel for nuclear reactors. However, enriched uranium can also be used to manufacture nuclear weapons. If the technology were available, the 2.5 tons of missing yellowcake would have been half the amount required for a nuclear bomb.

Nuclear material experts had said the Libyan uranium ore concentrate in case posed no significant security risk as it required prohibitively sophisticated processing capabilities before it can be suitable for civil or weapons use.

Nevertheless, the news of missing Libyan uranium ore concentrate did highlight serious problems with the national and global governance structures for managing uranium.

Based on my experience in nuclear non-proliferation and politics, I believe that the missing Libyan uranium debacle illustrates two things.

Firstly, it illustrates the dangers of a IAEA that doesnt have enough resources to monitor uranium ore stockpiles, especially in countries with unstable regimes. And faced with more pressing issues such as the safety and security of nuclear power plants in Ukraine, the IAEA wont prioritise yellowcake storage.

Secondly, many African countries still struggle to implement nuclear safety and security governance provisions.

Libya has been unstable since the fall of Muammar Gaddafis regime in 2011. This plunged the country into a civil war that has destabilised the North African and the Sahel regions, as Libya lost control of the largest and most diverse military arsenals in the region.

Much of this arsenal eventually fell into the hands of various non-state actors. Among them were Boko-Haram which mounted a reign of terror in northern Nigeria, and Ansar Al-Sharia in Tunisia.

Gaddafi had amassed stockpiles of nuclear material and technology as he sought to develop nuclear weapons. He had help from Abdul Qadeer Khan, who had been identified as a key facilitator for the global smuggling of nuclear material and technology.

Gaddafi eventually abandoned the weapons program in 2003, after months of secret disarmament negotiations with the US and British.

Following this deal, the US airlifted about 25 metric tonnes of Libyas nuclear weapon programme components and documents. The last of Libyas enriched uranium was removed in 2009. But there remained in Sabha, the southern Libyan city, about 6400 barrels of uranium ore concentrate. Its this material that was under the control of an army battalion.

Olli Heinonen, a former Deputy Director of the IAEA, has since explained that it would have been very costly to airlift the remaining concentrate. He also said there were incentives for Libyans to holding onto the concentrate until the spot price of uranium was high enough for profitable export.

Though the missing 2.5 tonnes of uranium have been recovered, questions remain: Why did 2.5 tonnes go missing in the first place? Who would have wanted to acquire it?

Mahjoubs speculation was that a group from Chad raided the warehouse in search of conventional weapons. But Heinonens explanation was that a black market seller could have stolen the concentrate to show it to a prospective buyer.

Both explanations raise more concerns about how secure Libyas cache and nuclear materials are. This, despite various mechanisms that have been put in place since the early 2000s in response to a CIA warning that Al-Qaeda could possibly develop a crude nuclear device. The agency also said the organisation had access to nuclear expertise and facilities.

The UN proposed a number of measures aimed at curbing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by non-state actors. These included the UN Security Council Resolution 1540 and the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. There was also the IAEA Additional Protocol which allowed for more intrusive inspections of nuclear sites.

Theres also the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaty - the Pelindaba Treaty - which came into force in July 2009.

The Pelindaba treaty establishes the African Commission on Nuclear Energy to ensure compliance with the stipulations of the treaty. Article 10, for example, provides for extensive oversight of nuclear materials on the continent.

Libya is a signatory to all these conventions. But reality is that, in the absence of a stable and competent government in Libya, international and regional authorities must fill the nuclear governance vacuum.

The IAEA has decried its limited resources. This was long before Moscows invasion of Ukraine which demanded the agencys attention.

African countries should invest in regional nonproliferation mechanisms, such as the African Commission on Nuclear Energy, whose responsibilities include the promotion of safe and secure peaceful uses of nuclear energy, as a complementary confidence building measure.

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Originally posted here:
Libya lost, then found, 2.5 tonnes of uranium - a red flag for nuclear safety - The Conversation

In 2022, 27,400 explosive ordnances were removed in Tripoli, Misrata, Benghazi and Sirte, revealed the U.N. Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Monday.

More than 1 million explosive remnants of war (ERW) which includes 82% projectiles and 4% small arms ammunitionhave been removed in Libya since 2011.

Khaled Alwadawi, who has spent the last seven years working with the UN Mine Action Service leading Libya Mine Action Services awareness work as Head of the Risk Education Section, said he and and his team have facilitated training for over 300,000 children, 125,000 men and 71,000 women across Libya in risk awareness since 2011.

In the first few years of his tenure at the Libya Mine Action Service Alwadawi says most accidents were caused by munition with mines being rare. But after the conflict in Sirte in 2016, there was a clear rise in the number of accidents from mines. This then dropped again, until recent conflicts in Tripoli have seen injuries from mines and wider munitions increase once again.

He recounts the sleepless night he spent with colleagues following the return of civilians to southern Tripoli on 22 May 2019 after the conflict that April. The team were unable to speak to the approximately 250,000 citizens ahead of their return, and unlike their previous successful work in Sirte where they worked with officials to close the city and educate the population, people returned to Tripoli while it was still littered with munitions. Many people were injured.

We couldnt stop the return. It was beyond us he says, calling it the worst day of his career. We were blamed for the accidents, when could do nothing to prevent people returning. Libya is a highly contaminated country, and we shouldnt underestimate the danger, he adds.

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UN: 27400 explosive ordnances removed in Libya during 2022 - Libya Update