By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 1 April 2017:
The butcher’s bill among civilian victims of the fighting in Libya continues to mount with UNSMIL reporting that in March there were 20 civilians killed including three children and six women. In the first two months of this year 28 civilians lost their lives.
The eleven of the victims in March died from gunfire. However, during the militia fighting in Tripoli a 14 year-old girl was killed when a shell smashed into her family’s apartment. Four more dead came from airstrikes, all apparently carried out by aircraft flying for the Libyan National Army.
Benghazi saw a total of eight deaths, Tripoli five, three in Ras Lanuf, two in Tobruk, one death in Zawia and another in Sebha. This last victim was a Nigerian migrant apparently caught in crossfire.
The three deaths in Ras Lanuf occurred at the hospital when two ambulance men and someone travelling with a patient were caught in an airstrike during the Benghazi Defence Brigades’ brief occupation of the Sidra and Ras Lanuf oil export terminals at the start of the month.
Two civilians died when an LNA Mig-21 crashed on to their house four days ago.
UNSMIL also listed 71 other deaths including 54 bodies discovered after the final end of the siege of Ganfouda’s 12 Buildings.
It also registered the summary execution of three bound and kneeling captives in Benghazi’s Salmani district. The killer is clearly visible in a widely-circulated video. The murders have raised an outcry in Libya and abroad, with calls for the murderer to be arrested. The LNA has promised that suspects will be detained and investigated. Until now it is unclear that the individual carrying out the Salmani murders has been arrested.
UNSMIL always stresses that it only lists deaths and injuries that it has been able to confirm from reliable sources. Thus it is perfectly possible that its figures are incomplete.
