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Italy to Secure Libya’s Southern Border

Migrants ride in a boat after they were rescued by Libyan coastguard off the coast of Gharaboli, east of Tripoli, Libya July 8, 2017. REUTERS
Migrants ride in a boat after they were rescued by Libyan coastguard off the coast of Gharaboli, east of Tripoli, Libya July 8, 2017. REUTERS
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Italy to Secure Libya’s Southern Border

Migrants ride in a boat after they were rescued by Libyan coastguard off the coast of Gharaboli, east of Tripoli, Libya July 8, 2017. REUTERS
Migrants ride in a boat after they were rescued by Libyan coastguard off the coast of Gharaboli, east of Tripoli, Libya July 8, 2017. REUTERS

Italy has revealed a plan to halt illegal migration to Libya by securing its southern border.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah on Wednesday met with Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese in Libya's capital Tripoli.

Lamorgese said that Rome will intensify its financial commitment to boost rural development to stabilize southern Libya affected by intense migration flows.

The Italian minister confirmed on Friday her country's desire to swiftly develop the project implemented by the Interior Ministry on the southern Libyan border, in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration.

Bilateral talks last month between President of the Presidential Council Muhammad Al-Menfi and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune touched on the security cooperation in the south, where insurgent African groups operate.

Ali Amilmedy, who resides in Sabha and works as a lawyer, said that the Libyan south has been oppressed for years. It was deprived of services and witnessed a shortage of liquidity and a scarcity of fuels.

The smuggling of illegal migrants to Europe continues through the Mediterranean.

The Chief of Staff of the Libyan Naval Forces said that up to 96 migrants from diverse African nationalities were rescued on their way to Europe.

In another context, the Minister of Economy and Trade, Mohamed Hwej, met with Egyptian Charge d’Affaires Tamer Moustafa in the presence of Libyan officials from the General Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Department of International Cooperation in the Ministry.

The meeting aims to coordinate the meetings of the Higher Joint Egyptian-Libyan Committee that are scheduled to convene soon.

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Dozens Feared Dead after Dam Bursts in Eastern Sudan

Sudanese queue to fill on water Port Sudan on August 26, 2024, after a dam collapsed as a result of heavy rain. (AFP)
Sudanese queue to fill on water Port Sudan on August 26, 2024, after a dam collapsed as a result of heavy rain. (AFP)
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Dozens Feared Dead after Dam Bursts in Eastern Sudan

Sudanese queue to fill on water Port Sudan on August 26, 2024, after a dam collapsed as a result of heavy rain. (AFP)
Sudanese queue to fill on water Port Sudan on August 26, 2024, after a dam collapsed as a result of heavy rain. (AFP)

Surging waters have burst through a dam, wiped out at least five villages and left an unknown number of people dead in eastern Sudan, officials said on Monday, devastating a region already reeling from months of civil war.

Torrential rains caused floods that overwhelmed the Arbaat Dam on Sunday just 40km (25 miles) north of Port Sudan, the de facto national capital and base for the government, diplomats, aid agencies and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

"The area is unrecognizable. The electricity and water pipes are destroyed," Omar Eissa Haroun, head of the water authority for Red Sea state, said in a WhatsApp message to staff.

He said he had seen the bodies of gold miners and pieces of their equipment wrecked in the deluge, and likened the disaster to the devastation in the eastern Libyan city of Derna in September last year when storm waters burst dams, swept away buildings and killed thousands.

On the road to Arbaat on Monday a Reuters reporter saw people burying a man and covering his grave with driftwood to try to prevent it from being washed away in mudslides.

The dam was the main source of water for Port Sudan, which is home to the country's main Red Sea port and working airport, and receives most of the country's much-needed aid deliveries.

"The city is threatened with thirst in the coming days," the Sudanese Environmentalists Association said in a statement.

CRUMBLING INFRASTRUCTURE

Officials said the dam had started crumbling and silt had been building during days of heavy rain that had come much earlier than usual.

Sudan's dams, roads and bridges were already in disrepair before the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Forces began in April 2023.

Both sides have since funneled the bulk of their resources into the conflict, leaving infrastructure badly neglected.

Some people had fled their flooded homes in five devastated villages and headed to the mountains where they were now stranded, the health ministry said.

On Monday, the government's rainy season taskforce said 132 people had been killed in floods across the country, up from 68 two weeks ago. At least 118,000 people have been displaced by the rains this year, according to United Nations agencies.

The conflict in Sudan began when competition between the army and the RSF, who had previously shared power after staging a coup, flared into open warfare.

The two sides had been seeking to protect their power and extensive economic interests as the international community promoted a plan for a transition towards civilian rule.

Overlapping efforts in pursuit of a ceasefire, including Saudi- and US-led talks in Jeddah, have not eased the fighting and half of the 50 million population lack sufficient food.