But the UN migration agency said the migrants were shot and killed on Wednesday in a smuggling warehouse in the desert town of Mizdah, where a group of migrants were being held. The government statement said on Thursday that migrants had killed a local trafficker in Mizdah, near Tripoli, allegedly prompting his family to take revenge and kill the 30 migrants. Eleven migrants were wounded in the rampage, it added, and taken to a hospital in the western mountain town of Zintan. The Libyan coast guard, trained by the EU to keep migrants from reaching European shores, intercepts boats at sea and returns them to Libya, where many migrants land in detention centers rife with torture and abuse. Militias loosely allied with the Tripoli government have been defending the country''s capital from a year-long offensive by eastern-based forces trying to capture it.

Source: The North Africa Journal May 28, 2020 21:22 UTC