SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Libyan security forces raided and violently broke up a protest sit-in by migrants outside a shuttered UN community center in the capital of Tripoli, activists and migrants said on Monday.

The troops came on Sunday night, smashed up the protest site and arrested hundreds, said activist Tarik Lamloum. Those detained were sent to a detention center in the nearby town of Ain Zara.

Others managed to flee from the raid, he said.

Lamloum, who works with the local Belaady Organization for Human Rights, said at least one migrant community leader was shot during the raid.

The migrants, including women and children, had camped outside the center in Tripoli since October, seeking protection following a massive crackdown on migrants, and demanding better treatment at the hands of Libyan authorities.

Aiysha, a Sudanese migrant, was part of the sit-in protest along with her family since October. The mother of two said police beat and detained migrants. She was among those detained.

“We were caught off guard,” she said, speaking by phone from the detention center in Ain Zara. She gave only her first name, fearing for her safety.

“They burned the tents, burned everything.”

The Norwegian Refugee Council and the International Rescue Committee said more than 600 migrants were detained in the raid.

“This is the culmination of a disastrous situation that has deteriorated” since the mass detention of migrants in October, said Dax Roque, the NRC’s Libya director.

Both groups urged Libyan authorities to immediately release those detained and provide them protection from further violence.

A government spokesman did not answer phone calls and messages seeking comment.

In the October crackdown, Libyan authorities rounded up more than 5,000 migrants, including hundreds of children and women — dozens of them pregnant, according to the United Nations.

Authorities at the time described it as a security operation against illegal migration and drug trafficking.

The detained migrants were taken to overcrowded detention centers, prompting an outcry from the UN and human rights groups.

Libya has been engulfed in chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.

The country has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, hoping for a better life in Europe.

Traffickers have exploited the chaos and often pack desperate families into ill-equipped rubber or wooden boats that stall and founder along the perilous Central Mediterranean route. Thousands have drowned along the way, others have been intercepted and returned to Libya.

Those detained on land and others returned to shore are often taken to government-run detention centers, rife with torture, sexual assault and other abuses. UN-commissioned investigators said in October that abuse and ill treatment of migrants at sea, in detention centers and at the hands of traffickers in Libya amount to crimes against humanity.

JERUSALEM: Israel is considering whether to extend the detention of a 17-year-old Palestinian with a rare neuromuscular disorder who has been held without charge for nearly a year in what authorities refer to as administrative detention, his father said on Monday.

The use of administrative detention has galvanized demonstrations across the occupied West Bank in recent months as several adult prisoners have gone on hunger strike to protest being held for months or years without charge.

Some have secured their release after months of fasting that left them hospitalized and at risk of permanent neurological damage.

Israel says administrative detention, which is rarely used for minors, is needed to prevent imminent attacks or to detain dangerous militants without disclosing sensitive intelligence. Rights groups say it further denies due process to Palestinians already living under military rule.

Amal Nakhleh, who was detained in January 2021, is one of just a handful of minors being held in administrative detention.

He had a tumor removed from his lung in 2020 and suffers from myasthenia gravis, a nerve disorder that causes severe muscle fatigue.

His father, Muamar, says Israel has renewed Amal’s detention three times over the past year without saying why he is being held or accusing him of any crime.

“There’s no legal justification to hold him, there’s been no charge,” he said. “They just say they have secret files.”

He says his son requires regular hospital visits for testing and needs a calm environment. At a court appearance on Monday, he was told that authorities need a few more days to decide whether to renew his son’s detention.

“I saw him today,” he said.

“He couldn’t move his lips, he couldn’t move his eyes, he couldn’t smile. These are symptoms of the disease … We are very worried about his health situation.”

The Israeli military and Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Jessica Montell, the director of HaMoked, an Israeli rights group that advocates for Palestinian detainees, says Israel was holding six minors in administrative detention as of September, when her group received a response to a freedom of information request.

Around 500 Palestinian adults are currently being held in administrative detention.

“Administrative detention should be reserved for extremely rare cases,” Montell said. “It should not be used in this wholesale way that Israel makes use of it, not for adults and definitely not for a sick child.”

KHARTOUM: The UN said it was starting consultations in Sudan on Monday to try to salvage the country’s move to democracy after a military coup.
UN officials were contacting parties to look for a way forward, and the army had raised no objections to the initiative, UN special representative Volker Perthes told reporters. “We want to move quickly,” he said.
The UN plan amounts to the only substantial effort at present to resolve the political crisis.
The military takeover in October wrecked a power-sharing arrangement with civilian leaders that was meant to pave the way to elections after the overthrow of leader Omar Al-Bashir in 2019.
The coup also halted a Western-backed opening up of the economy after decades of isolation and sanctions.
Protesters have regularly taken to the streets demanding civilian rule, and medics aligned with the protest movement say more than 60 people have died in clashes with security services.
“I do hope that these consultations can become something like a confidence-building measure and would help to at least reduce the violence,” Perthes said.
Protest groups and the political parties ousted by the coup have so far refused to negotiate directly with the military.
So the United Nations would start by approaching groups individually, in the hope of moving onto to a second phase of direct or indirect negotiations, Perthes said.
The first sessions on Monday afternoon would involve civil society groups. “We will have every day a mix of stakeholders we are talking to,” he said.
UN officials have asked the groups to present their visions for a way forward, with the aim of producing a consensus on points of agreement and disagreement at the conclusion of talks.
In a statement late on Monday, the military-led Sovereign Council welcomed the initiative and called on the inclusion of the African Union.
Perthes said that only Bashir’s former ruling party and the Sudanese Communist Party had rejected the initiative outright.
He said it would be tricky to set a timeframe for concluding talks and starting negotiations and that if one or two more weeks were needed, hard deadlines would not be imposed. “Time is precious, we know that. There’s a lot of pressure on the situation in Sudan and on us.”
Unless a new course for the transition and a path to credible elections is found, Sudan’s economic plight could worsen and instability could spread inside and outside its borders, analysts and diplomats say.
Perthes told Reuters he would find ways to make use of offers of support from international players including the US and Saudi Arabia, both key donors, and that others including European states and Kenya had also offered backing.
“The US, the Saudis, and a couple of others are very heavily involved, they helped in developing some ideas,” he said.
More mass protests against the military are planned, with another round expected on Wednesday.

LONDON: An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.5 was registered in Sulaymaniyah governorate, east of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, on Monday, with no immediate reports of injuries or damage, Iraq’s state news agency said citing the Ministry of Transport. 
“The earthquake was recorded at 09:29 p.m. local time, its magnitude was 4.5, and it was (located) 14 km north-east of Chamchamal district of Sulaymaniyah province,” the General Authority for Meteorology and Seismic Monitoring said.
It added that the quake was felt by residents in the area, and urged the public to “take caution, avoid rumors and false news, and abide by the seismic recommendations” issued by the authority.

LONDON: Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed stressed the UAE’s support for stability in Kazakhstan and for preserving its peace, security, and institutions.
His comments came during a call with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Monday, where he was briefed on the latest developments in Kazakhstan and the measures taken to establish security and protect the country’s institutions, state news agency WAM reported.
Nearly 8,000 people in Kazakhstan were detained by police during protests that descended into violence last week and marked the worst unrest the former Soviet nation has faced since gaining independence 30 years ago, authorities said on Monday.
During the call, Sheikh Mohammed “expressed his confidence in the ability of the Kazakhstan government and people to overcome this difficult period quickly,” the statement said.
Tokayev thanked the Emirati crown prince for his support for Kazakhstan, praising the strong ties between the two counties in various fields.
The two leaders also discussed bilateral relations and ways to develop them.
(With AP)