Tag: slavery

North Africa

Displaced Libyans stranded in the desert

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons is calling on the government of Libya to protect hundreds of former residents of the town of Tawergha who are currently stranded in the desert. According to the UN, approximately 40,000 Tawarghans were forcefully evacuated in 2011 due to their perceived support for the country's former dictator Moammar Qaddafi, and their return has since been blocked by armed militia groups acting with the consent of the Libyan government. Although the Tawarghans are Libyan nationals, they appear to be suspected of supporting Qaddafi simply because many are of Black African ethnicity. As his army collapsed in 2011, Qaddafi brought in many Black African mercenaries in a last-ditch bid to hold onto power. (Photo: Mustafa Fetouri via The National, UAE)

The Andes

Bolivia’s African king speaks for coca growers

The "King of the Afro-Bolivians," Julio I, is said to be South America's last reigning monarch, although he lives as a peasant cocalero in the Yungas region on the Andean slopes north of La Paz. The descendants of slaves brought in by the Spanish to work haciendas and silver mines, the Afro-Bolivians today have constitutionally protected autonomy. They have joined with their indigenous Aymara neighbors to demand greater rights for the coca-producing high jungle zone. Julio, of Kikongo royal blood, was crowned in a ceremony recognized by the Bolivian state in 2007. Last month marked 10 years of his official reign. (Photo: Casa Real Afroboliviana)

North Africa
Libya

Libya: Europe ‘complicit’ in horrific abuses

European governments are knowingly "complicit" in the torture, abuse and exploitation of tens of thousands of refugees and migrants detained by the Libyan immigration authorities or criminal gangs in appalling conditions, Amnesty International charges in a new report.  Dozens of migrants and refugees told Amnesty about collusion between detention center guards, the Libyan Coast Guard and smugglers. European countries and especially Italy have been aiding Libyan authorities in migrant interception, as well as striking deal with local militias.

North Africa

Libya slave trade becomes political football

Propagandists of the isolationist right and anti-war “left” alike are exploiting theĀ chilling emergence of a slave trade in abducted Black African migrants in Libya’s remote desert south as evidence that the NATO intervention of 2011 only led to nightmares. The popular uprising that ousted Qaddafi is invisible to themā€”as is the dictator’s own culpability in the social collapse that followed his rule.

North Africa

UN calls for joint tribunal over Libyan war crimes

The head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Ghassan Salamé, suggested to the United Nations Security Council that a joint tribunal should be considered to try individuals suspected of war crimes in Libya. Salamé warned that Libya is in a state of lawlessness, with crimes being committed each day. Salamé stated, "If Libyans alone cannot combat impunity for war crimes, it is time for the international community to consider mechanisms that can help them do so."

Iraq

Yazidis declare autonomous nation of Ezidikhan

In an historic step for the beleaguered Yazidi people of northwestern Iraq, the Supreme Spiritual Council of the Yezidi Nation has proclaimed the establishment of the "Provisional Government of the Autonomous Nation of Ezidikhan." The provisional government arrives just three years after the Yazidi people faced a genocidal assault that brought them to the edge of extinction, following the seizure of their territory by ISIS.

Iraq

Demand war crimes trial for ISIS leaders

Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi and Kurdish Regional Government authorities to prosecute ISIS fighters for war crimes against the Yazidi minority.