By Ebi Kesiena
Six migrants were killed by Libyan guards after shooting broke out at an overcrowded Tripoli detention facility over the weekend.
Images showed migrants boarding a bus after being detained by the local security forces, following an escape attempt from the facility.
According the International Organization for Migration (IOM) details of what triggered the incident are unknown. At least 20 other migrants were wounded and many more escaped in the chaos.
UN Support Mission in Libya stated that the killings came a week after sweeping raids in Tripoli, mostly targeting irregular migrants, leaving at least one person dead and 15 wounded.
Doctors without Borders (MSF) said 5,000 migrants and refugees had been swept up in “violent mass arrests”, tripling the numbers detained in the city in just five days.
Libyan authorities had said the wave of detentions last Friday and Saturday were part of anti-drug raids on houses and makeshift shelters in Gargaresh, a poor suburb of Tripoli.
