Hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries were forcibly taken to desert and hostile areas bordering Libya and Algeria after racial unrest in early July in Sfax, Tunisia's second-largest city. The Libyan border agents gave them water and took the migrants -- women and children first -- to a shelter, the correspondents said. "We found another group with children and women," added the officer, pointing towards the Tunisian border several hundred metres (yards) away. Without help from the Libyan border guards, "we would die in the desert," the man said, adding he would like to return to Tunisia where his wife and children remain. Tunisian rights groups said on Friday that between 100 and 150 migrants, including women and children, were still stuck on the border with Libya.

On Sunday, a United Nations-owned super-tanker arrived for a delicate operation to pump the oil from the abandoned ship, the FSO Safer. Here are some key facts:The 47-year-old Safer, long used as a floating oil storage platform, is moored off Yemen’s western port of Hodeida in the Red Sea, a key shipping route. Earlier this month, the UN said that SMIT had declared the vessel stable enough for a ship-to-ship transfer. The Nautica, a super-tanker the UN purchased for the oil transfer, arrived from Djibouti on Sunday and was due to moor alongside the Safer. The Nautica will be renamed Yemen, and will stay in the area as talks continue about who controls the ship and the oil.

Khaled Al-Mishri, chairman of Libya’s High Council of State, held talks on Saturday with Turkish Ambassador Kenan Yilmaz in Tripoli. According to a brief statement by the council, the two discussed “the efforts of the High Council of State to achieve elections in Libya, and the attempts of some actors to obstruct and disrupt this path.”“The Turkish ambassador appreciated the efforts of the High Council of State in implementing the electoral laws, expressing his country’s support for the Libyan-Libyan solution path.”

Cairo, Jul 16 (AP) Security authorities in the Libyan capital of Tripoli released a former minister less than a week after his detention which had prompted his tribesmen to shut down crucial oil fields, a tribal elder said. Former Finance Minister Faraj Bumatari, who hails from the al-Zawi tribe in southeastern Libya, walked free on Saturday afternoon from detention in Tripoli, said al-Senussi al-Zawi, one of the tribe's elders. “I spoke with him by phone, and he is awaiting a flight to the east” of Libya, al-Zawi said. His detention was prompted by his bid to replace Sadiq al-Kabir as governor of the Central Bank of Libya, according to al-Zawi. To force his release, Bumatari's tribe shut down crucial oil fields, which produce hundreds of thousands of barrels per day.

At least 15 migrants have been found dead off Tunisia’s coast and on its border with Algeria this week, authorities said on Friday. The deaths come as sub-Saharan Africans face increasing tensions in Tunisia and more and more people seek to leave or transit through the country en route to Europe. The Tunisian coast guard retrieved the bodies of 13 migrants on Wednesday night and rescued 25 others off the port city of Sfax, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry. Two migrants were found dead on theTunisian-Algerian border in the Hazoua region, according to a regional court spokesperson. The International Organization for Migration says 1,895 people have died or gone missing en route from northern Africa across the central Mediterranean this year, compared with 2,406 in all of 2022.

CAIRO (AP) – One of Libya’s two rival administrations has accused the country’s security agency of abducting a former finance minister, and a tribal leader said that the abduction prompted the shutdown of four southern oilfields. It said Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah – an ally of the security agency’s chief – is now responsible for Bumatari’s safety. In response to the abduction, Libya’s southern al-Zawi tribe – from which Bumatari hails – led the shutdown of four inland oil fields on Thursday, one of the group’s leaders, al-Senussi al-Zawi, told the AP. “Our main demand is the release of the minister,” the tribal leader said, who spoke on the phone from the eastern city of Benghazi on Friday. The three other sites purported to have stopped production are the El-Feel field, the Ibn Tufal field, and the 108 field, he said.

BENGHAZI (Reuters) -Production at Libya's Sharara and El Feel oilfields, which were shut on Thursday following the abduction of a former finance minister, has resumed on Saturday evening, four oil engineers and oil ministry said. Sharara has partially resumed at 30,000 barrels per day out of its usual 290,000, two engineers said. Sharara and El Feel oilfields, as well as the 108 field, were all closed in a protest by al-Zawi tribe in response to the kidnapping of former finance minister Faraj Bumatari. Libya's oil minister Mohamed Aoun told Dubai-based Asharq TV on Saturday that the oilfields' closure had cost the North African country the production of 340,000 barrels. The oil ministry also said the closures could lead to the declaration of force majeure.

Idea Generation: RapsodyOn this week's episode of Idea Generation, rapper Rapsody takes us on a journey from her early days in a college hip hop collective, to rising through the underground rap scene and landing major collaborations with Mac Miller and Kendrick Lamar, to the release of her critically acclaimed debut album, "Laila's Wisdom." From rapping for fun to signing to Jay-Z's Roc Nation and getting nominated for Grammy Awards, Rapsody's career traces an incredible arc.

“I spoke with him by phone, and he is awaiting a flight to the east” of Libya, al-Zawi told The Associated Press by phone. Bumatari was detained earlier this week by the Tripoli-based Internal Security Agency which is allied with the government of Prime Minister Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, according to local media. His detention was prompted by his bid to replace Sadiq al-Kabir as governor of the Central Bank of Libya, according to al-Zawi. To force his release, Bumatari’s tribe shut down crucial oil fields, which produce hundreds of thousands of barrels per day. Gift this article Gift Article

BAC Saudi Arabia officially launched following an agreement signed between Briggs Automotive Company and Veloce Life. In 2018, Faisal Binladin founded Veloce Life with the aim of becoming the fastest-growing hub for passionate car lovers. He said that through the partnership, he wants R&D facilities to develop new materials, and IP technologies, like graphene, in Saudi Arabia. The Veloce Life founder added that the new technologies developed by the cooperation go beyond motorsport, with the energy sector also expected to see benefits. BAC Saudi Arabia will operate out of regional hubs in Riyadh and Jeddah, through the partnership with Veloce Life.

Leaders of the Sudan’s Neighboring States Summit pose for a picture after the end of the summit in Cairo on July 13, 2023- press photoCAIRO – 15 July 2023: Tunisia welcomed, on Friday, the outcomes of the summit of Sudan's Neighboring Countries, which was hosted by on Thursday. Tunisia expressed its hope that Egypt’s initiative would contribute to advancing regional and international efforts aimed at reaching a peaceful and comprehensive solution to the crisis in Sudan, the statement added. Sudan’s Neighboring States Summit was hosted by the Egyptian capital on Thursday with the participation of the heads of state and governments of Egypt, the Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya and South Sudan. The leaders at the summit agreed to form a ministerial mechanism comprised of foreign ministers of Sudan’s neighboring states to coordinate common efforts to resolve the current conflict. They also agreed to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid provided to Sudan through the territories of neighboring states, in coordination with relevant international agencies and organizations.

(@FahadShabbir)MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2023) The closure of Libya's largest oil fields is posing a threat to domestic oil production in long-term, the Ministry of Oil and Gas of the Libyan Government of National Unity said on Saturday. On Thursday, production at El Feel, Sharara and 108 oilfields was shut down by the Al-Zawi tribe protesting against the abduction of a former finance minister, Faraj Bumatari. "Their (closure) is dangerous for the Libyan oil market, since the loss of confidence in the continuity of Libyan oil supplies to the world market will lead to the fact that oil from Libya will not be sold, or demand for it will decrease," the ministry said on social media. The ministry additionally stressed the risks of the irretrievable loss of Libyan oil importers and warned of the possible return of force majeure to the oil fields. Bumatari is a prominent figure in the Al-Zawi tribe, members of which comprise the majority of workers at Libya's southeastern oil fields.

Oil-rich After Muammar Qaddafi was overthrown and killed in an uprising supported by NATO in 2011, Libya descended into chaos that lasted for more than ten years. In 2008, the prince—the king's brother—and the Libyan government signed a multimillion-euro agreement to reforest desert areas of the country's interior. The prince allegedly applied "unacceptable pressure" to get the Libyan Ministry of Agriculture to pay him nearly 70 million euros ($78.52 million), according to the Libyan Investment Authority. The LIA's legal team, Jus Cogens, announced on Thursday that it had filed a criminal complaint against Prince Laurent for extortion, fraud, and improper influence. Since 2011, Libya has been subject to international sanctions, and the nation's 14 billion euro sovereign wealth is currently frozen at the bank Euroclear in Brussels.

CAIRO, July 15 (Reuters) - The closure of three Libyan oilfields could lead to the declaration of force majeure, the oil ministry said late on Friday, a day after the fields were shut in protest against the abduction of a former finance minister. A ministry statement called on all parties not to let their disputes affect energy production and exports. Production at the El Feel, Sharara and 108 oilfields was shut on Thursday in a protest by the Al-Zawi tribe against the abduction of Faraj Bumatari, according to a tribal leader. Zawi tribe leader Al-Senussi al-Ahlaiq told Reuters that the closure of El Feel was aimed at pressuring the authorities in Tripoli to release Bumatari, who was kidnapped after arriving at Mitiga airport on Tuesday. Bumatari is a candidate for central bank governor, which "makes him vulnerable to danger and kidnapping", the tribe said in a statement.

Libyan protesters escalated their anger, and closed 3 oil fields in the south and east of the country, until noon today (Friday), denouncing the kidnapping of Faraj Boumtari, Minister of Finance of the former “national reconciliation” government, amid a threat to cut off water to the city of Tripoli. In the meantime, the General Electricity Company was afraid of entering into a darkening process, and appealed to all parties for urgent intervention in order to avoid entering into a darkening process. The National Oil Corporation in Libya remained silent about the process of closing the three fields, and the executive authority in Tripoli did not comment on the fact that protesters from the Al-Zawiya tribe stopped pumping oil, in protest against the kidnapping of Boumtari, who belongs to it. Today in Tripoli I met with the French Ambassador to Libya, Mr. Mustafa Maharaj. We reviewed the current situation in the country and the next steps in the political process.