4 killed, 4 wounded in mine explosion in housing zones in Libya

16 Juin 2020

Tripoli, Libya, June 16 (Infosplusgabon) - Mines continue claiming the lives of civilians as four people were killed and four others were wounded in zones near southern Tripoli and Sirte at a time international efforts to reach a ceasefire are still deadlocked.

The medicine and support ground center affiliated to the government of national accord (GNA)announhere,ced the death of two people and injury to four others following two mine explosions, one on the road to the airport and the other in Aïn Zara, southern Tripoli.

A statement issued by the center Monday said a mine exploded in the zone of the road, south of the capital, killing a 35-year-old man and wounding another one aged 33.

The same sources added that another mine exploded in the region of Aïn Zara, killing a woman and wounding the rest of the family, including her husband and their two children, who were conveyed to the Martyr Ayman Al-Harama hospital.

Haftar’s forces planted mines in the residential districts they seized in the south and south-east of Tripoli, Wadi Rabii, Aïn Zara and Al-Hadhba, which have so far killed about 30 civilians and wounded 44 others, thereby delaying the return of the displaced to their homes.

In another incident, two inhabitants of Wadi Jaref, south-west of the city of Sirte, were killed Monday following a mine explosion as they were attempting to return to their homes.

The inhabitants of the region seized by Haftar’s forces called the operation room of the Libyan army to intervene and designate specialists to treat the zone in order to spare the inhabitants from the risks of explosions.

They said the planting of mines in populated areas was a crime punishable by national and international laws.

The scale of the problem of mines planted in housing zones near Tripoli brought the presidential council of the GNA to seek Sunday aid from countries of the world to remove the “those explosive engines”.

The management of foreign media of the ministry of foreign affairs of the GNA Sunday announced the beginning of a bilateral cooperation with Italy to clear the mines in the south of the capital, Tripoli, within “the framework of cooperation and coordination between Libya and Italy, and after coordination between the minister of foreign affairs, Mohamed Taher Siala and the Italian ambassador in Libya, Giuseppe Buccino".

A statement issued said that the Libyan mine-clearing center and the military special teams "undertook a bilateral cooperation with the Italian mission in the mine-clearing in the south of the capital, Tripoli, which was planted by Haftar’s militias before their fleeing from the region".

The statement added that the government of national accord "is actively seeking to cooper with several countries, particularly Italy and the concerned organisations, to work to find and clear all mines to ensure the return in all safety of citizens to their homes and properties".

In addition to the mines, Haftar’s forces left behind several mass graves in the zones they occupied, particularly Tarhouna in southern Tripoli, attracting condemnation by the international community and demanding investigation and indictment of perpetrators before the courts.

Contacts among the different actors of the Libyan crisis have continued, particularly between Turkey and Russia, the two main international actors acting in this North African country.

Within this framework, the Turkish authorities on Monday announced that Ankara and Moscow would continue negotiating for ceasefire in Libya, despite the cancellation of a high level visit of the Russian minister of foreign affairs and that of defence in Istanbul.

It was expected that the Russian minister of foreign affairs, Sergueï Lavrov, and that of defence, Sergueï Choïgou, would arrive Sunday in Istanbul but the two countries cancelled the visit without providing further details.

"We decided that it would be more useful to carry on the talks at the technical level," the Turkish minister of foreign affairs, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said Monday in Istanbul.

Turkish media said that the two parties did not agree on the details of the ceasefire but agreed to reduce the level of talks to try to resolve the pending issues.

The Italian government announced that the minister of foreign affairs, Luigi di Maio, would Wednesday travel to Turkey after visiting Switzerland on Tuesday.

The Italian ministry of foreign affairs did not unveil the agenda of the visit, but Italian media sources confirmed that the Libyan crisis would dominate the talks between di Maio and Turkish officials, as well as discuss bilateral relations and the reopening of airlines between the two countries.

The Turkish ministry of foreign affairs said on its website that di Maio’s visit “is made following an invitation of his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu”, noting that this was about the first visit this year in Turkey.

A mediation initiative of Algeria which was given a Maghreb dimension, in association with Libya’s neighboring countries, that is to say Tunisia and Egypt, aims to bring together the Libyan protagonists to get their opinions for a solution to the crisis.

At the military level, the Sirte front has over the past few days gone through relative calm while waiting to know the results from the efforts to reach ceasefire prior to the launching of the political process in the country for a definitive resolution of the crisis.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/AER/GABON2020

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