libya

Libya held rare municipal elections in nine communities on Saturday, although turnout in the country’s first voting for five years reached only about 38 percent.

The North African state, which has been mired in conflict and chaos since the 2011 toppling of Muammar Gaddafi, has not held any elections since 2014, when a heavily contested national vote ended up splitting the country into rival administrations and parliaments.

Libyan authorities on Sunday released one of Muammar Gadhafi’s sons after more than seven years of detention in the capital of Tripoli following his extradition from neighboring Niger, the country’s interim leader said.

A report from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), has revealed that about 53, 200 illegal Ghanaian migrants are still in Libya. This revelation comes months after some 127 Ghanaian detainees were rescued from Libya, following reports that Africans there had been subjected to inhumane treatment after giving away their life’s earnings, to make the torturous journeys through the Sahara, hoping to make it big in Europe.

The U.S. military believes a Russian introduction of warplanes into Libya may not tip the balance in its stalemated civil war but could further help Moscow eventually secure a geostrategic stronghold in North Africa, a U.S. general said on Friday.