Solace of Orphaned Children of Defeated Libya Extremists

A picture taken on August 2, 2017 shows children of extremist fighters now living in the Libyan Red Crescent headquarters in Misrata, a town half-way between Sirte and Tripoli. (AFP)
A picture taken on August 2, 2017 shows children of extremist fighters now living in the Libyan Red Crescent headquarters in Misrata, a town half-way between Sirte and Tripoli. (AFP)
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Solace of Orphaned Children of Defeated Libya Extremists

A picture taken on August 2, 2017 shows children of extremist fighters now living in the Libyan Red Crescent headquarters in Misrata, a town half-way between Sirte and Tripoli. (AFP)
A picture taken on August 2, 2017 shows children of extremist fighters now living in the Libyan Red Crescent headquarters in Misrata, a town half-way between Sirte and Tripoli. (AFP)

Traumatized by war, their extremist parents either killed or missing, 28 children have found solace in each other at a Red Crescent center in Libya's third city Misrata, said an Agence France Presse report on Friday.

Whether they're jumping up and down on mattresses or playing in the yard, the boys and girls stick together, like siblings, the older ones looking out for the little ones.

Last December, fighters loyal to Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord, many of them from Misrata, prised the Mediterranean coastal city of Sirte out of the grasp of the ISIS terrorist group after several months of battle.

Children of the defeated extremists were left in a state of physical and psychological trauma, Red Crescent spokesman Ali al-Ghwell told AFP during a tour of their camp in Misrata, half-way between Sirte and the capital Tripoli.

They had survived months of food, water and medical shortages on top of constant bombardment that had left them jumpy at the slightest noise.

Some emerged with injuries to the head, stomach or limbs.

Mohamed, a slight boy of five, had to have his right arm amputated, compounding the misery and his sense of isolation and disorientation.

Ali Mohamed Ahmad, a Red Crescent volunteer, recalls how he had to win over the boy with patience and attention before a smile finally returned to his face.

"I tried all the time to communicate and play with him for him to learn to have confidence in me," said the volunteer in his early 20s.

Now, seven months on from the rescue of 52 children aged between five days and nine years from the ruins of Sirte, Mohamed was seen running and shouting with his new extended "family" before throwing himself into Mohamed's arms.

Those with at least one Libyan parent have been handed over to family members living in the country. For children of foreign extremists, the situation is more complicated.

In June, eight Sudanese children, including a one-year-old baby, were repatriated to Khartoum.

Tunisia and Egypt have so far failed to respond to Libyan Red Crescent requests for assistance with around 15 children of their citizens left without guardians.

"I hope they'll be able to go back to their countries one day and reunite with family members," said Ahmad, the volunteer.

Until that time, the Red Crescent says it is doing its best to provide the children with an oasis of calm and stability, away from the chaos of Libya where rival authorities and a myriad of militias vie for dominance.

It provides the extremists' offspring with professional medical and psychological care. And "we're doing our best to find a prosthetic arm for Mohamed", said his carer Ghwell.



Scotland Awaits Famous Son as Trump Visits Mother’s Homeland 

A general view of the Trump Turnberry hotel and golf resort in Turnberry, on the west coast of Scotland, on July 21, 2025. (AFP)
A general view of the Trump Turnberry hotel and golf resort in Turnberry, on the west coast of Scotland, on July 21, 2025. (AFP)
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Scotland Awaits Famous Son as Trump Visits Mother’s Homeland 

A general view of the Trump Turnberry hotel and golf resort in Turnberry, on the west coast of Scotland, on July 21, 2025. (AFP)
A general view of the Trump Turnberry hotel and golf resort in Turnberry, on the west coast of Scotland, on July 21, 2025. (AFP)

Donald Trump will fly into Scotland on Friday for a private visit to the land where his mother was born and spent her childhood on the remote Isle of Lewis.

"It's great to be home, this was the home of my mother," he said when he arrived on his last visit in 2023.

Born Mary Anne MacLeod, Trump's mum emigrated to the United States when she was 18. She then met and married Fred Trump, kickstarting the family's meteoric rise that has led their son, Donald, all the way to the White House.

During his visit the current US president, who is six months into his second term, plans to officially open his latest golf course in northeastern Aberdeen -- making him the owner of three such links in Scotland.

Although Donald Trump has talked openly about his father Fred -- a self-made millionaire and property developer whose own father emigrated from Germany -- he remains more discreet about his mother, who died in 2000 at the age of 88.

She was born in 1912 on Lewis, the largest island in the Outer Hebrides in northwest Scotland, and grew up in the small town of Tong.

Trump visited the humble family home in 2008, pausing for a photo in front of the two-storey house. He has cousins who still live in the house, which has been modernized since Mary Anne MacLeod's time but remains modest, standing just around 200 meters (650 feet) from the sea.

Its slate roof and grey walls are a world away from Trump's luxury Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, or his gold-adorned apartment in Trump Tower, New York.

According to the British press, which based its reports on local documents, Trump's grandfather was a fisherman.

MacLeod was the 10th and last child of the family, and her first language was Gaelic before she learnt English at school.

Life was tough on Lewis after World War I, which claimed the lives of many of the island's young men. Following in the footsteps of her older sister, and so many other Scots over the decades, she decided to emigrate to the United States.

MacLeod boarded the SS Transylvania from Glasgow in 1930, bound for New York.

- Pink Rolls-Royce -

On her immigration papers she wrote she was a "domestic" when asked about her profession. One of Trump's sisters recalled that MacLeod had worked as a nanny in a wealthy family.

But a few years later her life turned around when she reportedly met Fred Trump at an evening dance. They were married in 1936 in Manhattan's wealthy Upper East Side, and MacLeod became a US citizen in 1942.

As Fred Trump built and expanded his property empire in the city by constructing middle-class homes in districts such as Queens and Brooklyn, Mary Anne devoted herself to charitable works.

"Even in old age, rich and respected and with her hair arranged in a dynamic orange swirl, she would drive a rose-colored Rolls-Royce to collect coins from laundry machines in apartment blocks that belonged to the Trumps," the Times wrote this month.

Photos of her hobnobbing with New York high society show her with her blonde hair swept up in a bun, reminiscent of her son's distinctive side-swept coiffure.

She was "a great beauty", Donald Trump has gushed in one of his rare comments about his mother, adding she was also "one of the most honest and charitable people I have ever known".

And on X he has pointed to "great advice from my mother: 'Trust in God and be true to yourself'".

In 2018 then-British prime minister Theresa May presented Trump with his family tree tracing his Scottish ancestors.

Less than 20,000 people live on Lewis, and MacLeod is a common surname.

Residents tell how Mary Anne MacLeod regularly returned to her roots until her death, while one of the president's sisters won over the locals by making a large donation to a retirement home.

But Donald Trump has not impressed everyone in Scotland, and protests against his visit are planned on Saturday in Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Earlier this year in April a banner fluttered from a shop in the port of Stornoway, the island's largest town. "Shame on you Donald John," it proclaimed.

Local authorities have asked for the banner to be taken down, but it is due to tour the island this summer with residents invited to sign it.