TRIPOLI: The United Nations Libya mission (UNSMIL) called on Wednesday on Libyan authorities to free political activist Al-Moatassim Al-Areebi and to end arbitrary detentions.
Al-Areebi, 29, was abducted on Monday in the city of Misrata by unidentified armed men in civilian clothes along with his friend Mohamed Shtewi, the mission said in a statement.
UNSMIL said that Shtewi was released “after being beaten” but that the whereabouts of Al-Areebi “remain unknown.”
UNSMIL urged Misrata city’s security and law enforcement agencies to urgently investigate the abduction of Al-Areebi, disclose his whereabouts, and secure his safe and immediate release.
Misrata is a port city some 200 km (125 miles) east of the capital Tripoli. The Tripoli government is considered to be in charge of Misrata but has not commented on the case.
“Reports of arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, ill-treatment, torture, and deaths in custody committed with impunity continue to plague Libya,” the mission said.
Libya has had little peace or stability since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted its leader Muammar Qaddafi.
It split in 2014 between eastern factions in Benghazi, the second-largest city, and western factions in Tripoli, with rival administrations governing in each region.
“The Mission has documented cases of at least 60 individuals currently detained across the country for their actual or perceived political affiliation,” UNSMIL said in the statement.
UN mission to Libya says political activist abducted in Misrata
https://arab.news/j3sz4
UN mission to Libya says political activist abducted in Misrata
- Al-Areebi, 29, was abducted on Monday in the city of Misrata by unidentified armed men in civilian clothes
- UNSMIL urged Misrata city’s security and law enforcement agencies to urgently investigate the abduction of Al-Areebi
Syria Kurds chief says ‘all efforts’ being made to salvage deal with Damascus
- Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal
- The two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism
DAMASCUS: Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said Thursday that “all efforts” were being made to prevent the collapse of talks on an agreement with Damascus to integrate his forces into the central government.
The remarks came days after Aleppo saw deadly clashes between the two sides before their respective leaders ordered a ceasefire.
In March, Abdi signed a deal with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration into the government by year’s end, but differences have held up its implementation.
Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal, adding in a statement that the two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism, and pledging further meetings with Damascus.
Downplaying the year-end deadline, he said the deal “did not specify a time limit for its ending or for the return to military solutions.”
He added that “all efforts are being made to prevent the collapse of this process” and that he considered failure unlikely.
Abdi also repeated the SDF’s demand for decentralization, which has been rejected by Syria’s Islamist authorities, who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashar Assad last year.
Turkiye, an important ally of Syria’s new leaders, sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat.
In Damascus this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed the importance of the Kurds’ integration, having warned the week before that patience with the SDF “is running out.”
The SDF control large swathes of the country’s oil-rich north and northeast, and with the support of a US-led international coalition, were integral to the territorial defeat of the Daesh group in Syria in 2019.
Syria last month joined the anti-IS coalition and has announced operations against the jihadist group in recent days.
