NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES
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Since the beginning of the year, an average of eight people lost their lives or went missing each day while trying to cross the central Mediterranean towards Italy, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF). With about 2,200 children, women, and men either missing or confirmed dead in the Central Mediterranean so far, the year 2023 has been the deadliest since 2017 on this migration route, witnessing an average of eight victims per day.
- Over 660 migrants were intercepted off the coast of Libya last week, reports the International Organization for Migration (IOM). From 12 to 18 November, 662 people were rescued at sea and brought back to Libya, explains the UN agency in a statement released yesterday evening.
- The Government of National Unity is planning a conference on migration entitled “Safe Mediterranean and a Stable South,” to be held on 27 and 28 November in Tripoli, reports Italian news agency Nova. Citing a “Libyan government source”, Nova reported that the conference will be attended by Labour Ministers from the Sahel and Sahara countries.
- An investigation by Greek newspaper Kathimerini says that mistakes and oversights in the planning and execution of a fatal mission undertaken by the Special War Command (DEP) of the Greek Armed Forces in Libya on September 17, in the aftermath of deadly floods. The search-and-rescue mission resulted in the deaths of three Greek military personnel and two volunteer interpreters in a road accident.
NATIONAL POLITICS AND SOCIAL ISSUES
- Libyan Prime Minister Osama Hammad visited the sites targeted for the establishment of a number of new residential complexes and unit projects in the coastal area of the flood-hit Derna. During the visit, Hammad, accompanied by the Chairman of the Reconstruction and Stabilization Committee, Hatem Al-Araibi, Engineer Al-Qasim Haftar, and Commander of the Derna Military Region, Lieutenant General Abdel Basset Bugris, stressed to the companies in charge of this work the necessity of completing the work as quickly as possible while maintaining quality, according to the Libyan Government.
- Representatives of the EU Border Assistance Mission in Libya (EUBAM) and Libya’s Criminal Investigation Department held talks on Thursday aimed in enhancing the latter’s capacity in fighting against cross-border crime. EUBAM is seeking to cooperate with the Libyan department on combating human trafficking and migrant smuggling through “technical advice and capacity building activities,” according to a brief statement by the European mission on X.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
- The Turkish presidency forwarded a motion yesterday to the presidency of the Parliament to extend the deployment of Turkish forces in Libya for a further 24 months, from next January 1st until 2026. According to Ankara’s state-owned news agency Anadolu, the motion signed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan underlines the “great importance for Turkey” of the “continuation of the ceasefire and the political dialogue process in Libya, as well as the establishment of peace and stability as a result of this process”.
- The European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) and the Libyan Ministry of Interior opened a student accommodation facility of the Specialized Training Institute of the ministry’s General Department for Security Operations.
