Libya


SC/13328

Despite significant progress in the International Criminal Court’s investigation of crimes committed within Libya in 2011 — including its first visit to the country in five years, in March 2018 — the cause of criminal justice would be undermined unless accused perpetrators were handed over, the Chief Prosecutor told the Security Council today.

Due to continuing hostilities and military operations in Syria’s Afrin District, some 126,000 men, women and children remain displaced, from Afrin to Tall Refaat, Nabul, Zahraa, Fafin and other areas.  Also, an estimated 150,000 people continue to be in Afrin District, where access to people in need remains extremely limited.

A new report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in cooperation with the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, warns that armed groups in that country, including those affiliated with the State, hold thousands of people in prolonged arbitrary and unlawful detention, submitting them to torture and other rights violations.

SC/13257

While a spirit of optimism was taking hold in Libya, even amid persistent security concerns, a predatory economic system — including the oil smuggling and human trafficking — must be overcome if elections in 2018 were to succeed in restoring peace and stability, the United Nations senior official in the country told the Security Council today.

Since 11 March, the United Nations estimates that more than 50,000 people have left eastern Ghouta, Syria.  Amid visits from United Nations teams in recent days, most of the existing shelters do not have the capacity or infrastructure to accommodate the large number of people arriving in rural areas near Damascus.

Ending a two-day mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock and Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag called on the international community to urgently tackle the crisis in the country, where over 13 million people need humanitarian aid.