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Libya’s GNA Captures Boat of Illegal Migrants

A group of deportee immigrants waits before boarding to a plane, heading to Nigeria during their deportation at Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli, Libya on February 14, 2017. (Photo by Hazem Turkia/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
A group of deportee immigrants waits before boarding to a plane, heading to Nigeria during their deportation at Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli, Libya on February 14, 2017. (Photo by Hazem Turkia/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
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Libya’s GNA Captures Boat of Illegal Migrants

A group of deportee immigrants waits before boarding to a plane, heading to Nigeria during their deportation at Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli, Libya on February 14, 2017. (Photo by Hazem Turkia/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
A group of deportee immigrants waits before boarding to a plane, heading to Nigeria during their deportation at Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli, Libya on February 14, 2017. (Photo by Hazem Turkia/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

The Interior Ministry of Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) has captured a wooden boat on a distress call, carrying a group of illegal migrants.

A total of 20 illegal migrants from Arab, African and Asian nationalities were rescued on Monday, the ministry revealed in a statement. They will be handed out to the Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency – the Ministry of Interior after providing them the medical and humanitarian aid and taking necessary legal procedures.

At least 55 irregular migrants of different nationalities were held on the Mediterranean coast of Libya, said the country’s Interior Ministry on Sunday. Libyan coast guards raided a warehouse in coastal Zliten city and caught 55 irregular immigrants, including four women and six children, the Ministry added.

The Ministry added that one Libyan was arrested for his involvement in this illegal immigration and for transferring the bodies of two immigrants who died out of malnutrition.

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Lebanon Elects Army Chief as New President

The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
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Lebanon Elects Army Chief as New President

The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)

Lebanon's parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun head of state on Thursday, filling the vacant presidency with a general who enjoys US approval and showing the diminished sway of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after its devastating war with Israel.
The outcome reflected shifts in the power balance in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, with Hezbollah badly pummelled from last year's war, and its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad toppled in December.
The presidency, reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system, has been vacant since Michel Aoun's term ended in October 2022, with deeply divided factions unable to agree on a candidate able to win enough votes in the 128-seat parliament.
Aoun fell short of the 86 votes needed in a first round vote, but crossed the threshold with 99 votes in a second round, according to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, after lawmakers from Hezbollah and its Shiite ally the Amal Movement backed him.
Momentum built behind Aoun on Wednesday as Hezbollah's long preferred candidate, Suleiman Franjieh, withdrew and declared support for the army commander, and as French envoy shuttled around Beirut, urging his election in meetings with politicians, three Lebanese political sources said.
Aoun's election is a first step towards reviving government institutions in a country which has had neither a head of state nor a fully empowered cabinet since Aoun left office.
Lebanon, its economy still reeling from a devastating financial collapse in 2019, is in dire need of international support to rebuild from the war, which the World Bank estimates cost the country $8.5 billion.
Lebanon's system of government requires the new president to convene consultations with lawmakers to nominate a Sunni Muslim prime minister to form a new cabinet, a process that can often be protracted as factions barter over ministerial portfolios.
Aoun has a key role in shoring up a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel which was brokered by Washington and Paris in November. The terms require the Lebanese military to deploy into south Lebanon as Israeli troops and Hezbollah withdraw forces.
Aoun, 60, has been commander of the Lebanese army since 2017.