CAIRO: Commercial flights between Italy and conflict-torn Libya will resume in September after the Italian government agreed to lift a 10-year-long ban on civil aviation in the North African nation, one of Libya’s rival governments said Sunday.
Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, prime minister of the Tripoli-based government, said on Twitter that the Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni informed his government of the decision.
He called the removal of the ban a “breakthrough.”
The decision came after Libyan and Italian aviation officials met Sunday in the Libyan capital of Tripoli to discuss “the upcoming restoration of direct flights and the strengthening of cooperation” between the two countries, according to a statement from the Italian Embassy in Libya.
Oil-rich Libya plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. In the disarray that followed, the country split into rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by rogue militias and foreign governments.
Italy and other European countries banned Libyan flights from their airspace as the country descended into chaos.
Over the past decade, Libya has had direct flights to limited destinations, including cities in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia, and other Middle Eastern countries, such as Jordan.
A Libyan government statement said the two countries have agreed that one airliner from each country would operate flights starting in September. They did not name the destination cities.
Italy agrees to lift ban on flights from conflict-stricken Libya, officials say
https://arab.news/zhv4m
Italy agrees to lift ban on flights from conflict-stricken Libya, officials say
- Libyan prime minister called the removal of the ban a “breakthrough”
128 journalists killed worldwide in 2025: press group
- The press group voiced particular alarm over the situation in the Palestinian territories, where it recorded 56 media professionals killed in 2025
BRUSSELS, Belgium: A total of 128 journalists were killed around the world in 2025, more than half of them in the Middle East, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said Thursday.
The grim toll, up from 2024, “is not just a statistic, it’s a global red alert for our colleagues,” IFJ general secretary Anthony Bellanger told AFP.
The press group voiced particular alarm over the situation in the Palestinian territories, where it recorded 56 media professionals killed in 2025 as Israel’s war with Hamas ground on in Gaza.
“We’ve never seen anything like this: so many deaths in such a short time, in such a small area,” Bellanger said.
Journalists were also killed in Yemen, Ukraine, Sudan, Peru, India and elsewhere.
Bellanger condemned what he called “impunity” for those behind the attacks. “Without justice, it allows the killers of journalists to thrive,” he warned.
Meanwhile, the IFJ said that across the globe 533 journalists were currently in prison — a figure that has more than doubled over the past half-decade.
China once again topped the list as the worst jailer of reporters with 143 behind bars, including in Hong Kong, where authorities have been criticized by Western nations for imposing national security laws quashing dissent.
The IFJ’s count for the number of journalists killed is typically far higher than that of Reporters Without Borders, due to different counting methods. This year’s IFJ toll also included nine accidental deaths.
Reporters Without Borders said 67 journalists were killed in the course of their work this year, while UNESCO puts the figure at 93.
