TRIPOLI: The United Nations Support Mission in Libya called Sunday for an investigation into a political activist’s death while detained at an eastern military base controlled by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
UNSMIL also demanded the “immediate release” of other prisoners it said were being detained “arbitrarily” by the war-torn country’s eastern-based authorities.
In a statement on X, the UN mission said it was “deeply saddened by the death of activist Siraj Dughman while in custody at Rajma military camp” and urged the Libyan “authorities to conduct a transparent and independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death.”
Plagued by political instability and violence since the overthrow of longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, Libya is split between an internationally recognized government, based in Tripoli, and a rival administration in the east backed by Haftar.
The base at Rajma, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) east of Benghazi, serves as Haftar’s headquarters.
In a video published on Saturday, the Haftar-affiliated Eastern Internal Security Agency confirmed Dughman’s death.
The agency said it had commissioned a forensic examination according to which Dughman had died “while attempting to escape prison on Friday” when he fell “from a window, fracturing his skull.”
The agency said he was arrested in October 2023 together with several others accused of “participating in a campaign” inciting the “overthrow of official state agencies” including Haftar’s forces.
UNSMIL said that Dughman “was arbitrarily arrested and detained in 2023” with other Benghazi-based staff members of the Libyan Center for Future Studies, an independent think tank, who “were never formally charged or appeared in court.”
Dughman was the director of the organization’s office in Benghazi, eastern Libya’s main city.
Extrajudicial arrests, detentions and assassinations of political dissidents, activists and human rights defenders have become common in Libya, particularly in the North African country’s east.
The Libyan Center for Future Studies said the security agency was “responsible for his death” which occurred in “obscure circumstances.”
UN urges probe into Libyan activist’s death in custody
https://arab.news/pguxz
UN urges probe into Libyan activist’s death in custody
- Dughman had died “while attempting to escape prison on Friday” when he fell “from a window, fracturing his skull"
Guterres warns UN risks ‘imminent financial collapse’
- “Member States must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse,” Guterres wrote
- Trump has often questioned the UN’s relevance and attacked its priorities
UNITED NATIONS: United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Friday warned that the world body is on the brink of financial collapse and could run out of cash by July, as he urged countries to pay their dues.
The UN faces chronic budget problems because some member states do not pay their mandatory contributions in full, while others do not pay on time, forcing it into hiring freezes and cutbacks.
“Either all Member States honor their obligations to pay in full and on time — or Member States must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse,” Secretary-General Guterres wrote in a letter.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has in recent months reduced its funding to some UN agencies and has rejected or delayed some mandatory contributions.
Trump has often questioned the UN’s relevance and attacked its priorities.
The organization’s top decision-making body, the Security Council, is paralyzed because of tensions between the United States and Russia and China, all three of which are permanent, veto-wielding members.
Trump also launched his “Board of Peace” this month, which critics say is intended to become a rival to the UN.
- ‘Untenable’ -
Although more than 150 member states have paid their dues, the UN ended 2025 with $1.6 billion in unpaid contributions — more than double the amount for 2024.
“The current trajectory is untenable. It leaves the Organization exposed to structural financial risk,” Guterres wrote.
The UN is also facing a related problem: it must reimburse member states for unspent funds, Farhan Haq, one of the Guterres’ spokespeople, said during a press briefing.
The secretary-general also highlighted that problem, writing in the letter: “We are trapped in a Kafkaesque cycle; expected to give back cash that does not exist.”
“The practical reality is stark: unless collections drastically improve, we cannot fully execute the 2026 program budget approved in December,” Guterres’ wrote, adding: “Worse still, based on historical trends, regular budget cash could run out by July.”
Guterres, who will step down at the end of 2026, this month gave his last annual speech setting out his priorities for the year ahead and said the world was riven with “self-defeating geopolitical divides (and) brazen violations of international law.”
He also slammed “wholesale cuts in development and humanitarian aid” — an apparent reference to deep cuts to the budgets of UN agencies made by the United States under the Trump administration’s “America First” policies.
