Libya

A new report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in cooperation with the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, warns that armed groups in that country, including those affiliated with the State, hold thousands of people in prolonged arbitrary and unlawful detention, submitting them to torture and other rights violations.

While a spirit of optimism was taking hold in Libya, even amid persistent security concerns, a predatory economic system — including the oil smuggling and human trafficking — must be overcome if elections in 2018 were to succeed in restoring peace and stability, the United Nations senior official in the country told the Security Council today.

Since 11 March, the United Nations estimates that more than 50,000 people have left eastern Ghouta, Syria.  Amid visits from United Nations teams in recent days, most of the existing shelters do not have the capacity or infrastructure to accommodate the large number of people arriving in rural areas near Damascus.

Ending a two-day mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock and Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag called on the international community to urgently tackle the crisis in the country, where over 13 million people need humanitarian aid.

On 7 March 2018, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1970 (2011) concerning Libya received a letter from the Coordinator of the Panel of Experts on Libya expressing the Panel’s extreme concern regarding media reports citing, often inaccurately and out of context, extracts from the unpublished interim report prepared by the Panel, in accordance with paragraph 14 of resolution 2362 (2017), as well as reproducing the content of the entire report.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the arrival of migrants in Italy — the most active route for those leaving North Africa for Europe — hit a five-year low:  5,247 for the first two months of 2018, versus some 13,000 for the same period last year.  IOM attributed the drop, in part, to voluntary humanitarian returns from detention centres in Libya.

The Food and Agriculture Organization Food Price Index for February found that rising world prices for staple grains and dairy products more than offset lower prices for vegetable oils, leading global food commodity prices up 1.1 per cent.  FAO also lowered projections for global wheat harvests this year.

United Nations humanitarian organizations and partners in Libya say they are deeply concerned about the situation faced by Tawergha men, women and children who are unable to return home and are currently living in makeshift-tented settlements in precarious conditions in Qararat al-Qataf and Hwara.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is calling for calm and restraint after reports of a refugee protest turning violent in Rwanda’s Kiziba refugee camp.  The camp hosts over 17,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, around 77 per cent of which are women and children.

On 9 February 2018, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1970 (2011) concerning Libya held informal consultations to consider the interim report of its Panel of Experts, submitted in accordance with paragraph 14 of resolution 2362 (2017).