KHARTOUM

(

18 Dec

.) -

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that 125 Sudanese nationals have died in Libya this year.

Foreign Aaffairs Minister Ali Karti acknowledged the “lack of accurate statistics on the number of Sudanese in Libya, because of the dire insecurity, and the complex political situation”. In a press conference in Khartoum on Tuesday, he stated that there are still “between 6,000 and 8,000 Sudanese in Libya, most of them in Tripoli and Benghazi”.

Karti confirmed the death of 13 Sudanese, caused by “indiscriminate shelling in these towns” from January until date. He said that another 112 Sudanese nationals drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, when the boats they were fleeing on, sunk.

Sudanese stranded in Libya have repeatedly complained to Radio Dabanga about their government’s “negligence of Sudanese living in insecure places abroad”. One of them told Radio Dabanga from Tripoli in July that “A number of countries have already evacuated their nationals from Libya, while Khartoum keeps silent.”

According to reports by Sudanese in Tripoli and Benghazi, at least 48 nationals were killed this year by bombs and missiles in Libya.

File photo: Sudanese fleeing the violence in Libya by ship, March 2014 (UNHCR)

Arabic Forum