Libya: Crimes of Abductions and Assassinations in 2019
During 2019, 1’155 casualties of violent incidents in various cities in Libya were documented. The vast majority, 79% of the victims were civilians, 906 victims, and the percentage of victims from the police, security and military sectors was 12%, while 9% of the victims were not classified because were not identified. The percentage of victims of assassinations, including bombings, terrorist attacks and extrajudicial killings, accounted for 39% of the total casualties, detentions 33%, and kidnappings by 20%.
During the second half of 2019, the number of victims of crimes of kidnappings and assassinations increased by 72% compared to the first half of the year. More than half of the victims were kidnapped or arrested. September was the most violent, with 169 victims, 15% of all 2019 victims.
The increase in the number of kidnappings of women is worrisome[i]. In 2019, there were 21 abductions of women were documented, 7 survived and returned, while the bodies of two victims were found in Benghazi[ii]. They two victims were expats from Sudan, who were living in Benghazi for a long time. The fate of another twelve victims remains unknown, Including Ms. Siham Serqewa[iii], a member of the House of Representatives from the city of Benghazi, who was kidnapped from her home in the early hours of July 17, and Mrs. Magbula el-Hassi[iv], 68 years old, who was kidnapped from her home on October 14, 2019. Thirteen of the kidnappings of women occurred in Derna, and another six were in Benghazi.
Most victims, 78% of the total, were victims of crimes in 10 cities and regions of Libya, while the rest were distributed over 29 cities and towns. The city of Benghazi topped the list with 286 victims, 25% of the total of year, followed by Tripoli with 117 victims, and Sebha with 102 victims.
344 victims, 30% of the total, were disappeared, to join the list of hundreds of victims of enforced disappearance from previous years, while 33% of the victims, 386, were killed.
[i] Human Rights Solidarity: “On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances Human Rights Solidarity: “For the first time, in Two Decades, we have documented the enforced disappearance of women in Libya””, 30th August 2019.
[ii] The city of Benghazi witnessed the kidnapping of five Sudanese women, two of whom were found with signs of torture, while the fate of the other three women remains unknown. Reem Yassin Dawood, the daughter of the murdered “Zainab Al-Hadandawiya,” a female Sudanese citizen who was murdered in Benghazi, on a television interview, accused the Special Forces officer wanted by the International Criminal Court, Mahmoud Al-Werfalli, of kidnapping, torturing and killing her mother (link to article in Arabic).
[iii] Benghazi, in the early hours of July 17th, 2019, masked gunmen dressed in military uniforms stormed the house of Ms. Siham Sergewa, a member of the House of Representatives. The assailants abducted Ms. Sergewa, shot her husband and wounded him in the leg and severely beaten her 16-year-old son. Though no one has yet claimed responsibility of the abduction, nor has the perpetrators been definitively identified, testimonies from some witnesses indicate that the attackers are linked to the so-called “Libyan National Army”, led by retired Major General Khalifa Haftar[x]. Despite international appeals and demands[xi] for the release and safe return of Ms. Sergewa, her fate remains unknown. Ms. Siham Sergewa was kidnapped few hours after participating in a televised live discussion[xii], in which she expressed her opposition to the military assault on Tripoli.
[iv] Mrs. Magbula el-Hassi, 68, is a licensed alternative medicine practitioner herbalist. Her son accused a unit in the Special Forces of kidnapping his mother at gun point from her home. Despite appeals for her release made by el-Hassah tribe, her tribe, her fate remains unknown.
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