Once upon a time, Libya was a country that many a man will like to visit. Indeed, the buoying oil industry, coupled with the then Libyan leader, the late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s pan-African philosophy attracted migrants from other countries, including Africans to explore the country for economic benefits.
We had lots of Africans, especially from the West African sub-region go to Libya or use the place as a transit to Europe and other parts of the world for greener pastures.
Unfortunately, Libya descended into chaos and has become a failed state after the West supported an uprising to overthrow the Gaddafi regime leading to his death, for allegedly backing terrorist group, abuse of human rights and lack of democracy.
For over six years, Libya has not known peace, law and order had broken down and regrettably huge stock of arms have been let lose into the country and are used by terror groups to cause mayhem, including abuse of human rights of migrants who are caught up in the crises.
Sadly, video footage of Black Africans being subjected to inhuman treatments including being sold openly as slaves, has gone viral on social media, evoking the painful memories of the slave trade that humanity has put behind it centuries ago and moving on with the cherished values of human dignity and equality of man as espoused by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The degrading as well as dehumanising spectacles have attracted worldwide condemnation, yet nothing is being done to stop the bandits.
We join hands with those on social media and other campaigners to call for an end to the inhuman and barbaric slave trade in Libya!
Rightly, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, took to the Flagstaff house facebook page to express his indignation at what is happening in Libya in the following words “The current slave auctions of Africans in Libya are not only gross and scandalous abuses of human rights, but are also mockeries of the alleged solidarity of African nations grouped in the African Union of which Libya is a member country.”
We add our voice to the sentiments expressed by the President and express the hope that the African Union would act and of course very swiftly to bring Libya to order and more importantly stop this heinous crime of human trade.
Human beings cannot be sold under any circumstance; human value is beyond monetary consideration! The people engaged in these barbaric acts in Libya must stop it and bow down their head in shame! It is ungodly ugly and “unAfrican.”
We at the Ghanaian Times, therefore, urge the AU and the West to act and act now to stop this heinous crime against humanity and help to restore law and order and return Libya once more to the comity of civility.
Source: Ghanaian Times
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Folks let the truth be told. Libyans are arabs who dont consider themselves Africans in Ghadafi's time and post Ghadafi's time period. Although years of economic boom through oil extraction attracted migrant labor from most African countries, local Libyan population has always looked down on black Africans with disdain. Black Africans has been maltreated badly in that part of the world. Those Africans that think Libya is a short cut to Europe must think again. The passage to Italy as most Africans think is rosy is not. The trek through the mediterranean is arduous and deadly. You may be lucky if you made it. People must be enlightened to take legal means to travel. After all these European countries dont have any survival answers to the problems of these Africans who have been brainwashed to believe that Italy is so Rosy. It is not. Hustling in Europe without the right documentation is a nightmare. The truth must be told. Africans need to stop pretending and let their brothers and sisters understand that life abroad is not rosy whether you are legally documented or not. The African Union(AU) is just a toothless bull dog. All they do is pass a communique and condemn on paper. That organization must be disbanded because it is so ***barred word*** to the point that it can act on a toilet paper. Most African leaders only pay leap service to these problems. They wait for the European Union and America to act. No wonder Trump's America First' slogan make so much sense. Instead of collaborating to solve problems on the continent, African leaders are only busy robbing their treasury. This Libya mistreatment of Black Africans has gone on for decades but no action is taken because these African leaders are all the same.