By Canadian Press

UN-backed probe cites crimes against humanity in Libya

Mar 27, 2023 | 6:31 AM

GENEVA (AP) — U.N.-backed human rights experts said on Monday there is evidence that crimes against humanity — including sexual slavery — have been committed against Libyans and migrants in the North African country.

The investigators commissioned by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council also faulted the European Union for sending support to Libyan forces that they say contributed to crimes against migrants and Libyans.

The findings come in an extensive new report, based on hundreds of interviews with hundreds of people including migrants and witnesses, that wraps up a fact-finding mission created nearly three years ago to investigate rights violations and abuses in Libya.

Libya was plunged into turmoil after a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 toppled longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed, and left the country divided between rival governments on the east and west.

Oil-rich but largely lawless Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants seeking a better quality of life in Europe, and activists have long decried horrible conditions faced by migrants.

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The Associated Press