On Tuesday, Libya’s Interior Ministry announced that it freed a group of foreign hostages, who had been kidnapped.
In a statement, the ministry said that members of the Western Border Region Investigations Agency were able to free the hostages from the outskirts of Zuwara city.
The ministry added that the kidnappers were caught “red-handed” during the raid. It said that all legal measures were taken, and the culprits were referred to the competent authorities.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned of the dangerous trafficking operations taking place in the city.
Libya is currently facing a political crisis after the Parliament swore in a new government last week. The incumbent administration has refused to cede power, amid the fallout from a failed attempt to hold national elections in December.
Each rival government has support among the armed factions based in Tripoli. The Parliament-backed Prime Minister, Fathi Bashagha has said he intends to take over in the capital this week, raising fears of clashes.
Notably, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has recently documented a large number of cases of kidnapping and detention, enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings of civilians, officials, journalists, civil society members and human rights activists in Tripoli during the past year.
“Under international human rights law, no one may be arbitrarily arrested or detained. Torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings are strictly prohibited, as are abductions and kidnappings,” it added.
“The mission calls on the Libyan authorities to fully investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law, and International Humanitarian Law. Libya must end the entrenched culture of impunity in the country,” it stressed.
Libya has sought to emerge from a decade of chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011.