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War crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture, enslavement, extrajudicial killings and rape have been committed in Libya since 2016, a United Nations investigation has found.
The independent fact-finding mission on Libya, commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, said migrants and detainees were particularly exposed to violations that have occurred since the country was plunged into a state of instability and civil war.
Amid concerns about foreign mercenaries who have been operating in Libya, the experts said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that personnel from a Russian private military company known as the Wagner Group “may have committed the crime of murder” in connection with evidence that they had fired gunshots directly at people not taking direct part in the hostilities.
The experts also cited reports indicating that the Libyan coastguard, which has been trained and equipped by the European Union as part of efforts to staunch the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean, had mistreated migrants and handed some over to detention centres where torture and sexual violence were “prevalent”.
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