The crew of a speedboat labelled “Libyan coastguard” attacked a migrant boat carrying about 150 people, beating them with sticks and causing many to fall into the water and at least four to drown, a humanitarian group has said. “The violent intervention of the Libyan coastguard caused a situation of mass panic on board the rubber boat in distress,” Sea-Watch said in a statement. It was not immediately clear if Libyan coastguard members were responsible for the attack, or if the incident would affect the planned start of training next week of up to 100 Libyan coastguard members as part of Operation Sophia. “Next week training starts with the Libyan coastguard,” Sea-Watch’s Neugebauer said. The Libyan coastguard currently has three boats in Tripoli, three boats in Misrata and two boats in Zuwarah, according to the German government report.

Source: The Guardian October 21, 2016 14:10 UTC