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On Tuesday, the Libyan authorities announced the release of 63 Egyptian migrants who were detained by human traffickers in a warehouse in the eastern city of Al-Bayda.

The Spokesman for the Anti-Illegal Migration Agency, Hassan Bouakrim said that the migrants had been kidnapped for ransom by smugglers.

He noted that the migrants came to Libya as a transit station to reach Italy. They were deceived by human smugglers who pledged to take them to Italy. They then kidnapped them to blackmail their families and demand a ransom for their release, Bouakrim said.

He added that the migrants were tortured by the smugglers. They were then handed to the Anti-Illegal Immigration branch in the city of Shahat. They will receive medical examinations and will get the necessary medical care, he explained.

Notably, Libya continues to suffer from disappearances, rape, kidnappings, and murder.The country ranked 20th among the insecure countries, according to the Numbeo Crime Index. The war-torn country was rated 62.00 in the crime index, a high rating.

Earlier in July, the Sabratha Security Directorate announced the arrest of a group of migrants who were preparing to travel to Europe by sea.

In a statement, the Directorate indicated that its security patrols were able to raid a den used to smuggle migrants. It added that this was an implementation of the security plan to secure the city during the Eid Al-Adha holiday.

The statement confirmed that legal measures were taken regarding the incident, the smugglers were detained, and are being referred to the competent authorities.

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Dozens of Egyptian Migrants Freed in East Libya - See

Tripoli: In Tripolis Old City, young Libyans weave delicate patterns with threads of silver and gold to create traditional filigree jewellery - reviving an art almost lost through decades of dictatorship and war.

Abdelmajid Zeglam is just 12 years old, but his minutely detailed creations are already selling fast in the streets around a Roman-era archway dedicated to emperor Marcus Aurelius.

I hesitated at first for fear of failing because Im young, but my mum encouraged me, Zeglam said.

He is the youngest of 20 or so students, around half of them female, studying at the Libyan Academy for Traditional Gold and Silver Crafts, in a building that once served as a French consulate to the Ottoman Empire.

Trainees learn about precious metal alloys before studying the art of filigree, in which beads and threads of the precious materials are woven into intricate designs then soldered together to create jewellery.

I love it, Zeglam said. I want to become a petroleum engineer in the mornings and a jeweller in the afternoons.

Mohamed al-Miloudi, a 22-year-old civil engineering student in a baseball cap, said he had not missed a class since signing up in September.

Its a hobby, but Id like to make it into my trade, he said.

The institutes founder, Abdelnasser Aboughress, said filigree jewellery was an ancient tradition in the North African country.

Craftsmen in the medina of Tripoli were trained by Jewish masters and later by Arabs, at the prestigious School of Arts and Trades founded in the late 19th century, he said.

Secret jewellers

But generations of tradition were abruptly halted after Muammar Gaddafi took power in a 1969 coup.

The ruler scrapped the constitution and established his jamahiriya - a medley of socialism, Arab nationalism and tribal patronage.

He also scrapped the private sector, seizing companies and confiscating their assets.

Overnight, self-employed artisans lost everything: their workshops, their livelihoods and their students.

The state reduced Libyan crafts to nothing and forced a generation of young apprentices, who should have taken up the baton, to instead leave the traditional crafts and join the army or become civil servants, said Aboughress.

The 55-year-old was born just a few streets away in the medina, and despite Gaddafis ban, he took up the craft at the age of 15.

Along with his father, for decades he worked in secret on jewellery for trusted clients.

Now, he hopes to pass the craft on to younger generations, as well as fighting back against a tide of lower-quality jewellery imported from Egypt and China (which) has flooded the market.

Aboughress is working on a project to document and preserve as much of this cultural heritage as possible.

People with passion

Student Fatima Boussoua hit out at the practice of selling old Libyan silver jewellery at cheap prices to be exported then melted down.

Its part of Libyas artisanal heritage thats disappearing! she said.

A dentist in her 40s who also teaches at the University of Tripoli, Boussoua has been training at the centre for the past year, hoping to master the craft.

We should be training artists to preserve our heritage, she said. All it needs is people with passion.

While becoming a true expert takes years of training, Aboughresss students are already producing works for sale online or at the centre itself.

That said, he admits the project needs financial help to buy the expensive raw materials - as well as moral support.

He hopes that with enough resources, he will one day be able to set up a string of other workshops across Libya.

Its time to bring this craft back to life, he said.

The rest is here:
Libya traditional jewellery hangs on by silver thread - Gulf News

The sister of an activist critical of Khalifa Haftar has been kidnapped with her 20-day-old baby, as well as her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, her father Saeed Al-Farsi said on Saturday.

Al-Farsi appeared in a video recording saying that the "Twenty" unit headed by Ali Al-Mashai -a militiaman of the Tariq bin Ziyad militia affiliated with Haftar- is responsible for the kidnapping of his daughter Nada and her children.

The militia seized Nada to force her sister Nadin, who is an activist opposing Haftar, to close her Facebook account, which she used to expose the militias' violations, the father says.

Earlier, the activist Nadine Al-Farsi published a phone recording of her with the militiaman Ali Al-Mashai, in which he threatened to kidnap her sister if Nadin did not close her Facebook page.

Later, Nadin broadcast a video clip of her sister, Nada, after she was seized, while they were talking to her via a video call.

Haftar's militia allowed Nada to talk to her family, to absorb the anger of the public after a video clip of her father announcing the kidnapping of his daughter went rival online, Nadin says.

Women in Haftar- controlled areas are facing risks of kidnapping and extrajudicial killings, as human rights activist Hanan Al-Barasi was killed in broad daylight by Haftars militias, and before that, MP Siham Sergewa disappeared after a militia attacked her home, as well as activist Iftikhar Abu Dhraa and many others who were subjected to such crimes.

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Sister of Haftar opposition activist kidnapped with her children in Benghazi - The Libya Observer

Protests have broken out across Libya in recent days; the House of Representatives in the eastern city of Tobruk was set on fire and hundreds of protesters in the capital, Tripoli, have been descending on the city centre to denounce armed militias and increasing prices of basic goods.

The protests have come as Libyas numerous political factions remained at odds over a constitutional framework and roadmap to elections, as United Nations-backed negotiations in Cairo and Geneva between representatives from Tripolis High Council of State and Tobruks House of Representatives have been unable to come to an agreement.

The uncertainty has been exacerbated by a continuing oil blockade initiated by factions seeking to topple the internationally recognised government in Tripoli and install a rival government led by former-Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha, based in Sirte, instead.

There are many reasons why protesters have decided to take to the streets in anger. But they can be summarised simply by the failure of the politicians to reach a political accord and their preference instead to wrestle with each other over power at the expense of ordinary citizens, Libyan academic and writer Ahmed Mayouf told Al Jazeera.

This failure has naturally resulted in the deterioration of living conditions across the board, affecting even those citizens who have little interest in the politics.

Libyan journalist Mustafa Fetouri agreed, insisting that the protests are against the current status quo in its entirety, and that includes both governments; [interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid] Dbeibahs in Tripoli and Bashaghas in Sirte.

Fetouri told Al Jazeera that the main reason for the protests is the deterioration of living conditions in Libya, and in particular the constant power cuts, lack of employment opportunities, and the absence of any agreement on elections.

However, Tripoli-based Libyan academic Yusuf Bakhbakhi suggested that the reasons for the protests differed depending on the area in which they are taking place.

There is a sense of frustration and increasing complaints over issues related to unemployment in Tripoli which has fuelled protests [there] against Dbeibahs government, he said.

In Tobruk, the reasons are more political and have more to do with the presence of mercenaries and the politics of the House of Representatives that have prevented the holding of elections.

Libya has been racked by instability and civil war since the toppling of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

In 2021, a UN-backed national dialogue led to the formation of a new government under Dbeibahs on the basis that elections would be held in December the same year. However, elections were delayed indefinitely, leading to a dispute about the legitimacy of Dbeibahs government.

In February 2022, the House of Representatives in Tobruk backed by strongman Khalifa Haftar, who laid siege to the capital Tripoli throughout 2019 before being driven back by Turkeys military intervention controversially appointed Bashagha as prime minister and tasked him to form a government.

Yet, Bashagha met stiff resistance from armed militias aligned with Dbeibah as he tried to enter Tripoli in Mayto install his government, leading him to subsequently announce that he would assume his duties from the city of Sirte.

Since then, supporters of Bashaghas government have partially shut down oil facilities in the east in a bid to pressure Dbeibahs government into stepping down. Bashagha told the Reuters news agency that the oil blockade would likely end if the central bank supplies the funds for the budget that parliament had approved [for his government].

The oil blockade has exacerbated the problem of power outages across Libya, which is one of the primary grievances of the protesters who have recently taken to the streets.

Tripoli-based Libyan academic Yusuf Bakhbakhi told Al Jazeera that power outages are lasting for hours during the day, and queues at petrol stations are very long. This is aside from the rising inflation and increasing prices.

Yet Bakhbakhi said the protests have yet to reach a level in which they might be able to force change.

The protests may escalate. This is certainly a possibility, he said.

However, it is still limited to some of the youth, and the burning of the House of Representatives building in Tobruk and the shutting off of roads by protesters and other destructive actions may have affected the decision of others to join these protests.

Bakhbakhi added, Libyans at the moment are still not at the point whereby they are ready to take to the streets in large numbers, despite the deteriorating living conditions.

Mayouf said the protests will likely continue to escalate.

As far as the protesters are concerned, there is no difference between Debeibas government or Bashaghas in terms of their contribution to the deterioration in living conditions. This is what makes it difficult for one side to use the protests against the other, he said.

Yet, it will not stop them trying to ride the wave and attempt to construct a narrative that suggests they stand with the protests against the other side.

The rest is here:
What is behind the protests rocking Libya? - Al Jazeera English

The African Union, AU, intends to hold an inclusive Libyan reconciliation conference whose agenda will be determined by the Libyans themselves under African auspices, Head of the AU Liaison Office in Libya (AUlol) Wahida Ayari has told Saudi media Asharq al-Awsat.

The conference will be a complementary path if the current path fails, the AU official said.

The African Union is focusing on national reconciliation and support for the existing political path adopted by the international community in Berlin 1, Ayari added.

The AU has been pressing for an African solution for the Libyan crisis. The organization wants the UN to appoint an African diplomat to mediate between Libyan rivals.

The oil-rich African country has slid into chaos since 2011 after the removal and assassination of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising.

Libya currently has two competing administrations backed by foreign countries vying for influence.

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African Union plans to organize inclusive conference for reconciliation in Libya The North Africa Post - The North Africa Post