UN: Human traffickers kill 12 migrants in Libya
Dozens also wounded when some 200 Eritreans and Somalis held captive tried to escape, says UN spokesman
By Fatih Erel
GENEVA
Human traffickers in Libya killed 12 migrants and wounded dozens of other African migrants, the UN said on Friday.
The incident happened on Wednesday in Bani Walid, 180 kilometers southeast of the capital Tripoli, after a group of some 200 Eritreans and Somalis tried to escape from captivity, William Spindler, spokesman for the UNHCR refugee agency, told a press conference at the UN in Geneva on Friday.
"According to survivors, people were shot while trying to escape and during attempts to recapture them," Spindler said.
Some of the survivors had been held in captivity for up to three years, he said.
Libyan authorities transferred 140 people who managed to escape from the traffickers to an official detention center near Tripoli, he added.
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