Bangladeshi among Libya detention centre airstrike victims

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Bangla Tribune Report
Published : 14:17, Jul 05, 2019 | Updated : 14:19, Jul 05, 2019

Security and emergency personnel work at site of an airstrike at a detention centre for mainly African migrants, in a suburb of Tripoli, Libya, July 3, 2019, in this image obtained from social media. Courtesy of Jihaz Mukafahat Alhijrat Alghyr Shareia/Social Media via REUTERSA Bangladesh national has been killed in the recent airstrike at Tajoura detention centre for migrants near the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Wednesday (Jul 3).

A high ranking foreign ministry official confirmed the death to Bangla Tribune on Friday (Jul 5).

At least three Bangladeshi were injured in the incident, the official added.   

Khalifa Haftar led eastern army led the air strike on the detention centre, which is for mainly African migrants.

It was the highest publicly reported toll from an air strike or shelling since eastern forces under Khalifa Haftar launched a ground and aerial offensive three months ago to take Tripoli, the base of Libya's internationally recognised government.

United Nations Libya envoy Ghassan Salame condemned the strike, saying it "clearly amounts to the level of a war crime".

"The absurdity of this ongoing war has today reached its most heinous form and tragic outcome with this bloody, unjust slaughter," Salame said in a statement.

Libya is one of the main departure points for African migrants, fleeing poverty and war, to try to reach Italy by boat, but many are picked up and brought back by the Libyan coast guard, supported by the European Union.

Thousands are held in government-run detention centres in what human rights groups and the United Nations say are often inhuman conditions.

The UNHCR refugee agency had already called in May for the Tajoura centre, which holds 600 people, to be evacuated after a projectile landed less than 100 metres (330 feet) away, injuring two migrants.

/ssz/srj/
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