Trading in human beings as witnessed recently in Libya is a "crime against humanity", the chairman of the African Union Commission said Tuesday after a recent revelation of slave trade in Libya shocked the global community.
Speaking at a press conference at the AU headquarters ahead of an AU-EU Summit scheduled for Nov. 29-30 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Moussa Faki Mahamat said an investigation would be carried out by relevant bodies and perpetrators-whoever they are-would be held to account.
According to Mahamat, statelessness in Libya, absence of the rule of law and military factions worsens the situation of migrants. He called for a census to be conducted to determine the number of migrants languishing in Libya and "…identify those who want to return".
"I appeal to the African nations to provide logistical support to repatriate the African migrants," he said referring to the migrants that have been stranded inside Libya unable to make the much-looked-for ocean crossing into Europe.
Faki Mahamat further said that the EU's policy of blocking migrants from crossing to Europe made the situation difficult.
"I will raise my concern [during the EU-AU Summit]," he said, adding the "situation in Libya since 2011 is very difficult".
"Country [Libya] is divided into armed factions," he said with the situation leading to terrorists, religious extremists and human traffickers to roam the land.
The African Union will contribute to finding a solution to the Libyan crisis, Mahamat said and hinted that the previous peace agreement signed between the various factions in Libya had already failed.
"The Libyan actors should revisit the agreement," he said.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry of Gambia-a small western African nation from which too many migrants are headed for Libya-issued a statement on Tuesday condemning what it described as "ongoing horrific and indignant reports on the sale of African migrants as slaves in Libya".
The Ministry called on "…the highest Libyan authorities, the African Union, the United Nations and the international community to undertake thorough investigations immediately in order to put an end to these gruesome atrocities which have no place in this day and age".
It called for "this topic" to be included in the upcoming AU-EU summit.
According to the International Organization for Migration, Gambia is the second highest "producer" of migrants going through Libya to Italy, next only to Nigeria in percentage terms.
-HAIL TO ZIMBABWE MILITARY
Meanwhile, Faki Mahamat said the situation in Zimbabwe, whose 93-year-old leader was brought under house arrest last week "is not a coup d'état".
The chairman hailed the Zimbabwe military for preserving the Constitution in a process which he said was conducted without spilling any blood.
