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25, March 2018

Chad soldier, 20 Boko Haram militants killed in clashes ⁰

A Chadian soldier and 20 militants from the Nigeria-based Takfiri group Boko Haram have been killed in a clash in the volatile Lake Chad region.

A Chadian military officer said Saturday that the incident took place on Friday on an islet named Tchoukou Hadje, adding that five soldiers were injured.

“Twenty Boko Haram members were killed and a large amount of weapons was recovered,” the officer said. “The Chadian army lost one member.”

Two Chadian soldiers including a captain were killed in an ambush in the area a month ago in the first attack by the Nigerian militant group on Chadian soil since May last year in which nine soldiers died.

Chad is a member of a multinational task force combating Boko Haram across its border with Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon. The force has been created with the aim of preventing a spillover of the militancy to those countries from Nigeria.

Boko Haram has been largely pushed out of its main strongholds in northern Nigeria, according to the country’s military and government. The group, however, is still active in its Sambisa Forest enclave in Borno and launches sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces from there.

More than 20,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in more than eight years of insurgency by Boko Haram in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger. The group pledged allegiance to the Takfiri Daesh group in 2015.

The United Nations has warned that areas affected by Boko Haram face a humanitarian crisis.

Source: Presstv

25, March 2018

Thousands rally in Brussels to protest racism, discrimination ⁰

Around four thousand people have rallied in the Belgian capital to denounce racism and discrimination and demand equality for all.

The Saturday rally was organized by social groups and left-wing parties in Brussels where participants marched five kilometers (three miles) through the city.

They held up signs reading, “United against racism” and “together against discrimination.”

“I am here today to demonstrate against racism in Belgium and in the world, against the Federal Government that takes racist measures against refugees,” said one protester.

People take part in a national protest against racism, hatred, discrimination, inequality and aggression in Brussels, March 24, 2018. The banner reads, “Fear is the path towards the dark side, fear leads to anger, anger leads hatred, hatred leads to suffering.” (Photo by AFP)

Meanwhile, 16 anti-racism and migrant support organizations hailing from the country’s Brussels, Flanders, and Wallonia regions issued a joint statement, commemorating the “victims of hatred and terror in Brussels and elsewhere.”

The government has tightened migration laws since Daesh’s bombings of the Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station in Brussels two years ago, which left 32 people dead and hundreds more wounded.

In their statement on Saturday, the protesters said they will not allow “terrorists” to create division within the Belgian society.

Europe has been the scene of rallies especially since 2015, when the continent was hit by an influx of refugees, mostly fleeing violence in the Middle East.

Countries across Europe have seen a significant rise in xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments, mostly toward Muslims. Amnesty International has sounded the alarm about right-wing parties in Europe advocating anti-immigration and anti-Islam policies.

Last year alone, extremists in Germany which is home to some three to four million Turks launched 950 attacks against Muslims, including many arson attacks targeting mosques.

Source: Presstv

24, March 2018

Cameroonian journalists face ban on political reporting ⁰

Journalists in the central African country of Cameroon are in a quandary about how to fight a government ban on political reporting in the run-up to the March 25 senatorial elections.

Some, like private media outlets Galaxy FM and Magic FM, are defying the edict.

“We won’t accept limiting freedom of speech when Cameroon wants to be fully democratic,” Galaxy FM presenter Jean Jacques Ola Bebe told Deutsche Welle (DW) earlier this month. Despite the ban, Magic FM recently featured a member of Social Democratic Front, the chief opposition party, as a studio guest taking calls from listeners.

According to reports, however; these are the exceptions.

Many media professionals agonize over how to fulfill their watchdog role without triggering the wrath of the powerful National Communication Council (NCC), the media regulatory body. The government’s track record provides reason to worry.

The NCC has banned newspapers, levied exorbitant fines against media critical of the government and put journalists in jail.

Last year, the NCC suspended the licenses of at least 40 media outlets for violating the country’s terrorism laws. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) documented the abuses in a report, “Journalists are NOT Terrorists: In Cameroon, anti-terror legislation is used to silence critics and suppress dissent.”

Reporter Ahmed Abbas is a prime example. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for “complicity in acts of terrorism” and “failure to denounce acts of terrorism.” He won the prestigious CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 2017 and was released in December after 879 days in prison.

The NCC itself is suspect. Journalists argue that President Peter Biya created the council to punish media outlets that oppose his government and portray him unfavorably. Biya has been in power since 1982 and is Africa’s longest reigning leader, according to Deutsche Welle.

Freedom House designates Cameroon’s media “not free.” Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index ranks Cameroon 130 out of 180 countries. A Freedom House report noted, “Some independent outlets continue to operate, sometimes in defiance of government sanctions, but frequently self-censor in order to avoid reprisals.”

To gain insight into how Cameroon’s press corps is handling the recent ban, IJNet turned to Comfort Mussa, an award-winning journalist and founder of the Sisterspeak237 blog that “advocates for our rights, shares news, opinions and analysis of women’s obstacles and victories, setbacks and head starts.” Mussa also writes a weekly column Comfort Zone for The Sun newspaper.

IJNet: How are private media outlets in Cameroon reacting to the government ban on political debates? Are many defying the order?

Mussa: Reactions have been varied. The regulations on “political programs” have given rise to a new debate among journalists in Cameroon about what a clear definition of “political program” really is. A report or debate about the state of roads or public health policies can be tagged as political. However, many journalists interpret [the government ban] to mean political debates headed into the 2018 elections.

How do you see media outlets responding?

Most political programs on local radio and TV stations continue to air, albeit with a lot of caution on the part of the journalists. “Cameroon Calling,” a flagship program that often features political debates on the [government-controlled] radio station, CRTV, did not air last Sunday.

There is a certain degree of self-censorship from many journalists, especially those from private stations. It is worth noting that over 100 of the private radio stations in Cameroon operate under “administrative tolerance” without formal licenses.

How has the ban affected your reporting?

Whether on Comfort Zone or Sisterspeak237, I am constantly aware of the environment in which I operate and this makes me cautious and more diligent about how I report and the topics I choose to write about. In the different networks that I am part of, we have been brainstorming about ways in which journalists can get around this. However, so far, it is still business as usual.

Comfort Mussa added this: “There is a shift in the questions that journalists are discussing these days, concerning the future of journalism in Cameroon. I am proud of the conversations that journalists are having now and how they are exploring different formats and innovative ways of practicing journalism.”

Among NCC rules published for covering the upcoming elections:

Suspension of all political programs throughout the period of electoral campaigns
Prohibition of candidates from taking part in programs other than those authorized within the framework of the campaign
Need for media organs to plan equal coverage of all political parties taking part in the election
Need for media reports to favor social cohesion, peace, national unity and integration, democracy and human rights
Need for media content to reflect the present administrative and political disposition and not favor conflict of any kind

A final note: The NCC president promised to distribute an election guide and warned that any media that go against the established principles would be punished.

Source: IJnet.org

24, March 2018

Quotable Quotes in the Southern Cameroons Struggle for Independence ⁰

Our traditional rulers have been turned into auxiliaries of an alien enemy administration and informants of the brutal colonial secret police in the land which our ancestors passed over to us and posterity. These are the crimes our Ambazonia self defense groups have taken up arms to free all of us from. If they arrest enemy collaborators or request banned enemy economic operators to pay back some of our own money which they stole or facilitated the theft through their conscious collaboration or facilitation that, cannot be characterized as ransom.

Our self-defense forces need to acquire weapons to prosecute the liberation war of self-defense. They need to feed themselves. They need to acquire intelligence from the enemy camp. They need to secure our borders and our communities. They live the daily realities of the brutal acts of genocide and must take self-survival tactics to fight this war which is escalating every day.

Extract from a Cameroon Concord News editorial by Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

24, March 2018

USA: Cameroonians to wave goodbye to their football king ⁰

Hundreds of Cameroon football fans in the USA will pay tribute to former football star, Ntoko Roland during a testimonial game to be hosted in Dallas. The Cameroonian football hero, a one-time Best Foreign Player of the Year in Slovenia, retired from the beautiful game long ago but will now be honoured on his 50^th birthday at the Anderson Bonner Soccer Park (Field 1) in Dallas.

Cameroon Concord News sources in the US say football fans are expected to defy the cold weather to attend the star-studded game which will include the veterans of Atlanta. Ntoko Roland will play for both sides to mark the end of a glorious career that took him to Germany, Slovenia and Indonesia.

Bundes as he is popularly known was quoted as saying that “There’s a time to start and a time to finish, it was a fulfilling ride from day one.” Ntoko Roland is undoubtedly the most recognised, successful and talented footballer the South West region of Cameroon has ever seen on the field.

Eyong Eyong Ebot (Moh-Kukouri) who also moonlights as President Emeritus of the Veterans of Atlanta told Cameroon Concord Sports that it will not be difficult to honour Ntoko Roland by travelling down to Dallas “because he is an icon of the Cameroonian game and we must honour him.” The Ntoko Roland jubilee will hold from the 30th of March to the 1^st of April in Dallas, USA.

He started his soccer career with ElectSport of Limbe and won the famous BEAUFORT CUP and player of the tournament when he was 18. He later led ELECTSPORT Limbe into the prestigious First Division league. He played for PWD KUMBA and later UNION DOUALA

In Slovenia, he played for Novo Mesto, PUBLIKUM Celje and OLYMPIJA LUBIANA from where he had a taste of the EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. He joined the German side, Darmstadt in 1996 and partnered the controversial Ghanaian football legend, NII LAMPTEY. He was recruited by a second division side Greuther Furth in 1997. Ntoko Roland Njume also had a spell in INDONESIA.

He held the captaincy of PWD Kumba and won the football gold medal during the All African games in Egypt 1991 with the junior Lions of Cameroon. Ntoko gained a place with the senior Indomitable Lions and played alongside Cameroon football greats like the Late Massing Benjamin, Nfede Louis Paul, kunde Emmanuel, Tataw Eta Stephen, Ebwelle Beltin, Onana Jules, Ndip Akem Victor, Bell Joseph Antoine and Omam Biyik.

He was voted best foreign player in Slovenia in 1995 and was a member of the Indomitable Lions squad during the Africa Cup of Nations, South Africa 1996. His school mates remember him as the guy who rushed the afternoon session of the GCE exams to meet his pals in a football pitch.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

24, March 2018

Thousands to take part in Washington’s ‘March for Our Lives’ rally ⁰

Hundreds of thousands of protesters are getting ready for a massive anti-gun rally in Washington, as calls grow for tighter gun control measures following a wave of mass shootings in the United States.

The “March for Our Lives” event, set to take place on Saturday, has been organized by survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida.

Fourteen students and three educators were slain and 15 other people were wounded in the February 14 shooting rampage, the most deadly school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, sparking renewed debate about gun control in the US.

“No special interest group, no political agenda is more critical than timely passage of legislation to effectively address the gun violence issues that are rampant in our country,” rally organizers said in a statement.

A woman collects school children posters and slogans designed on the eve of the “March for Our Lives” rally in Washington on March 23, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

“It’s an issue of life and death,” Alex Wind, a student who survived the Florida massacre, told CNN. “Everyone has their own idea of how this needs to change, but I think we all agree that this needs to change. The mass shooting epidemic we have in this country is terrible.”

The event is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of students to DC and local marches nationwide to call for gun control and school safety measures in response to mass school shootings.

Event organizers said that similar demonstrations were being held across the country and abroad, with up to 800 events scheduled worldwide. Many celebrities have donated funds to the organization which was established in the wake of the Florida mass shooting.

The 19-year-old shooter, identified as Nikolas Cruz, fired some 100 shots by his AR-15 rifle. Prosecutors in Florida are seeking the death penalty for Cruz, though lawyers representing the shooter have said he will plead guilty if the death penalty is not pursued.

Earlier this month, the Florida state legislature passed new laws raising the minimum age for purchasing an assault-style weapon to 21.

President Donald Trump proposed last month to arm teachers to deter school shootings, a controversial idea that has drawn little support from educators, including the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers lobby.

Trump was endorsed by the National Rifle Association (NRA) in his 2016 presidential election campaign. The president and his fellow Republicans in Congress strongly support Americans’ constitutional right to own guns.

Source: Presstv

24, March 2018

War in Lebialem County: Yaounde would neither confirm nor deny ⁰

A government official was killed and a district administrator wounded on Thursday in an ambush blamed on anglophone separatists in western Cameroon, a human rights activist said. The attack hit a convoy carrying a government official responsible for land ownership issues in part of the Southwest, who was killed.

The area’s prefect survived the attack but was injured, the activist said. The report was confirmed by sources in the security services, but the government in Yaounde would neither confirm nor deny it.

Unrest blamed on armed separatists has increased in recent weeks in the Northwest and the Southwest, two English-speaking territories that became part of the mainly French-speaking country after independence in 1960.

The attack took place ahead of elections to the Senate which are to be held on Sunday, with authorities banning certain types of vehicle on roads in the Southwest and urging people to “remain calm and vigilant”.

Senate elections do not take place by universal suffrage in Cameroon. Municipal councillors across the country vote for 70 members of the upper house, while appointees to the 30 remaining seats are named by President Paul Biya.

On Tuesday, a Tunisian was killed in the Southwest during an operation aimed at freeing four hostages – two Tunisians and two Cameroonians – who were kidnapped by an armed group on March 15, state television reported.

Source: News24

23, March 2018

Beijing: China’s top legislator meets Biya ⁰

China’s top legislator Li Zhanshu met with Cameroonian President Paul Biya on Friday.

Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), said Chinese President Xi Jinping held fruitful talks with Biya on Thursday and they made top-level designs for the development of bilateral relations in the future.

Li said China’s NPC is willing to have more friendly exchanges with Cameroon’s parliament and he called on the two sides to implement the consensus reached by the heads of state.

Li expressed his hope that both sides would support each other on political issues, create a better cooperative environment, and have more people-to-people exchanges.

Biya congratulates Li Zhanshu on his election as chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC.

Biya spoke highly of China’s foreign policy and appreciated China’s long-term support for Cameroon, calling for more legislative exchanges between the two countries.

Source:Xinhuanet

23, March 2018

Cameroon: Playing games with our minds ⁰

2018 is an election year and it appears all tricks are acceptable, especially when there are no real economic and financial results that can endear a government to its people. True to its philosophy, the CPDM government yesterday March 22 staged a new show, using Vision 4, a local TV channel, to announce that the former minister of water and energy, Basil Atangana Kouna (BAK), who had fled the country last week when news of his impending arrest was released to the public following allegations of fraud and embezzlement when he was the head of Cameroon’s water corporation (CAMWATER) had been brought back to the country.

BAK, as he is popularly called, was until early March the powerful minister of water and energy who had transformed himself into a weapon of mass destruction for young jobless Cameroonians, many of whom have been condemned to wearing diapers for the rest of their lives. BAK has left behind a trail of destruction and corruption wherever he has been to. At CAMWATER, the mess he left behind is still flowing and it has made its way to many neighborhoods. Even in Yaounde, the nation’s capital, there are many neighborhoods without water and electricity and this has gone on for years. BAK had decided to line his pocket instead of using the money for the purpose for which it was intended.

Being aware of the fate that was awaiting him following his dismissal from government, BAK gingerly hatched a plan that would spare him a long jail term. BAK had left Cameroon surreptitiously on board a Turkish airlines flight to Montreal a day before he was expected to appear in court to answer for all his financial and economic crimes. His ordinary and diplomatic passports had been seized a weak before he disappeared. His disappearance was plotted with the connivance of top government officials and senior security and intelligence officers.

BAK’s trip to Montreal had been brought to the attention of Cameroon Concord News Group on the same day he was leaving the country. A former Cameroon government undercover security agent who fled the country, had reliably informed our senior correspondent in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan, where he is living that Atangana Kouna would not be attending the court session scheduled for last Friday. The agent, who is struggling with life in Abidjan, is very bitter with the way things are turning out in Cameroon. He disagrees with BAK regarding the manner in which he has managed the energy ministry and CAMWATER, but points out that there are lots of bad elements in the system.

He argued that corruption had spread across the country like ragweed and if care was not taken, Cameroon could implode. He said many young soldiers had lost their lives in the north of the country and in the Anglophone regions, but the government was keeping things under wraps. He added that some had been killed by senior military officials due to little disagreements. The south region native stressed that the Minister of Defense, Joseph Beti Assoumou, was destroying the military, adding that his new policy of dismissing soldiers and imprisoning others for asking for their money could one day come back to bite the government. He promised to speak to our correspondent on the divisions within the ministry of defense, stressing that he had a lot to spill.

BAK’s choice of Montreal is not in error. BAK owns a mansion in an upscale neighborhood in Canada’s second largest city, Montreal. For security reasons, Cameroon Concord News Group has decided to withhold his home address. His property is estimated at more than one million dollars. Cameroonians in Canada had been planning a huge demonstration to take place in front of his mansion to let neighbors know that they were sharing their beautiful neighborhood with an embezzler and a homosexual whose actions have resulted in many deaths in his native Cameroon.

It should be recalled that BAK is not the first Cameroon government official to escape to Canada following threats of arrest by a government that has the nasty habit of jailing its real and perceived enemies for a long time without trial. Florent Ely Etoga, CRTV’s first general manager who passed away two months ago, had also embezzled CRTV’s budget and fled to Côte d’Azur in France where he lived for many years before returning to Yaounde to spend his last days. Years after, Messi Messi joined the club of embezzlers. He had once headed a prosperous Bank in Cameroon until it was alleged that he had engaged in financial malfeasance. He promptly skipped town and emerged in Montreal.

His saga started on April 19, 1992, when Garga Haman Adji, the then Minister of Public Service and State Control, announced that the Disciplinary Council of the Office of Budgetary Control (IGERA) had charged Robert Messi Messi, the former Director of the Société Camerounaise de Banque (SCB), with embezzlement. Messi Messi had already been fired as General Manager of SCB in August 1988, barely a month before the bank collapsed under the weight of its mountain of bad loans estimated at more than CFAF 150 billion. Over one thousand employees also lost their jobs in the process and many have since died due to stress and frustration.

IGERA had accused Messi Messi of swindling over CFAF 2 billion (CFAF 2,285,178,792 FCFA) and asked him to explain the whereabouts of another CFAF 45 billion missing from SCB coffers. IGERA barred him from holding public office in Cameroon for a 10-year period, and instructed the Minister of Justice to begin judicial proceedings against him. Messi Messi was also handed a CFAF 2 million fine.Instead of accepting his punishment, he simply skipped town, choosing Montreal as his destination of choice. He later sought asylum in Canada on political grounds where he is living today like a lord.

While in exile, he was interviewed in Switzerland by Celestin Monga, today a vice president at the African Development Bank in Abidjan, where Mr. Messi Messi alleged that most of the money had been taken by the country’s first lady and his family who kept on showing up in his office with notes from the Unity Palace that they be given money. The Unity Palace has never confirmed or disconfirmed that information, but what is clear is that the taxpayer had been robbed of a huge amount of money.

Atangana Kouna’s story is a déjà vu. Same people, same comedy. The story about his return to Cameroon on Thursday, March 22, 2018, is more of a distraction and part of a game that is designed to enrich certain people. The government of Cameroon is famous for playing games with the minds of its people. Alcohol consumption, which is a favorite pastime in Cameroon, seems to have reduced the people’s ability to think and analyze issues independently.

The government is aware of this and it is making hay while the sun shines. Elections are in the offing and there is no better way to distract a people who have been rendered helpless due to tough economic times. The government has weaponized poverty and it is using it to keep Cameroonians under control. Poverty can disarm even the bravest and it has indeed robbed Cameroonians of their mental capabilities and dignity. To the developed mind, yesterday’s story has produced more questions than answers. It is hard buying into the story that Atangana Kouna has been brought back to Cameroon “manu militari” from Nigeria.

The pictures of a plane purported to be carrying Basil Atangana Kouna do not tell any story. There were no pictures of BAK. If the photographer could take pictures of the airplane, why could he not take pictures of BAK as he alighted from the Chinese made airplane in handcuffs? Which other way could have been used to convince skeptics about the government’s determination to bring back criminals to Cameroon for them to answer for their crimes?

In all of the noise, nobody, not even those who broke the news, have made mention of the airport whence the flight originated. The story has only been that he has been brought back from Nigeria. From which airport did the flight originate? Cameroon Concord News Group wants to get to the bottom of the matter. It is prepared to send its reporters to gather more information in Nigeria. However, it needs the originating airport in order for it to do a clean job.

After all the buzz about BAK returning to Cameroon and being taken to the famous SED, Cameroon Concord News Group on Friday dispatched its West Africa Bureau Chief, Kingsley Betek, to SED to talk to some of his contacts who have always elected anonymity. According to one of them “BAK is a huge, handsome, and fair in complexion guy with a physical presence. If he is around, it will be easy to see him even from a distance. I have not seen anything extraordinary around here, but I will have my ears to the ground and will advise you whenever anything pops up.”

BAK’s story is being used by the regime to prove that it is effective. It is seeking to mend the dents its image has taken following BAK’s disappearance from Cameroon under embarrassing circumstances. The country’s intelligence community is still recovering from this embarrassment. However, it is used to such embarrassment. Many government officials have left the country incognito even when the country’s intelligence services are monitoring them. Corruption has finally spread to the intelligence services. Nobody is safe. Even Etoudi knows that with a few millions of francs, the country’s intelligence services could betray it.

The government is at its wit’s end. Its poor economic performance is coming back to haunt it. Corruption has become a norm in the country. As elections approach, the government needs something to distract Cameroonians. The Southern Cameroons crisis has diminished the government’s credibility and it is scrambling for other means that may make it look credible in the eyes of the poor and desperate population. Playing games is its forte. It has been playing games with so many minds. When will it face reality and quit playing games with our minds?

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai and Kingsley Betek with correspondent reports

23, March 2018

UN says Libya still living with killings, torture, slave markets ⁰

A UN rights report sheds light on the plight of Libyans seven years after a NATO-led military intervention there, saying rival armed groups in the North African state continue to kill and torture civilians with impunity, while Europe-bound refugees are still being bought and sold in “open slave markets.”

In a report to the Human Rights Council on Wednesday, the United Nations human rights office said ordinary Libyans and refugees in the North African state are still being arbitrarily held in appalling conditions with no access to the outside world.

In March 2011, a multi-state NATO-led coalition began a military intervention in Libya a month into an uprising against the country’s then dictator, Muammar Gaddafi.

That mission, which was said to be aimed at paving the way for a ceasefire in Libya and ending attacks against civilians, came to an end in October that year after the fall and death of Gaddafi amid the uprising.

Seven years on, Libya remains a lawless state, with various rival armed factions vying for power. The country is now split between two governments based in the east and the west.

Libya’s coastlines are also largely in the hands of armed groups who smuggle refugees onto boats heading for Italy and Europe.

“Extrajudicial and unlawful killings are rampant,” UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour told the Geneva forum. “In what has become an increasing pattern in and around Benghazi over the last two years, more bodies with signs of torture and hands bound were found in the streets,” he added.

He explained that armed groups are “the main perpetrators of grave human rights violations and act with almost complete impunity.”

According to Gilmour, detention centers run by armed groups, “including those with links to ministries,” have the worst record.

The Libya-Italy route has been one of the major passageways for the asylum seekers attempting to reach wealthier European states.

Amid the mayhem in Libya, a CNN video grabbed news headlines late last year, showing an auction, where refugees captured by traffickers were being sold into slavery.

The report caused international outrage and prompted rights groups to blame Europe for the crisis. They said as long as European countries refuse to create safer and legal means for refugees to reach the continent, people will continue to suffer.

The footage also triggered protest rallies in several European countries, with the participants pointing the finger of blame for the chaotic situation in the state at Europe, which supported the 2011 military intervention.

According to the UN refugee agency, Libya hosts 43,113 refugees seeking to travel to Europe. Up to 90 percent of people taking a perilous sea journey to Europe depart from Libya.

Adel Shaltut, charge d’affaires at Libya’s mission to the U.N. in Geneva, said, “Libya is a victim of illegal migration, it is only a transit country and cannot shoulder all responsibilities. Our coast guards and border guards do not have capacity to face organized crime and terrorism.”

EU diplomat Carl Hallergard said that refugees and activists were subjected to “unlawful detentions, abductions, torture, forced labor and sexual and gender-based violence.”

The European Union said it is “deeply also concerned about reports of migrants and refugees allegedly being sold as slaves and call on the Libyan authorities to investigate and hold persons responsible for those acts accountable.”

Source: Presstv