Fourteen people were killed and 25 injured after a public transport bus collided with a heavy transport truck on a desert highway in southwestern Egypt on Wednesday, medical and security sources said. The accident occurred on Assuit-Kharga highway, around 400 km southwest of Cairo, in New Valley province that shares a long border with neighboring Libya, the sources said. Seventeen ambulances were dispatched to the scene to ferry the injured to hospitals, state news agency MENA quoted New Valley governor Mohamed el-Zamlout as saying. Reckless driving, lax traffic rules and poor road conditions cause many road crashes in Egypt. Egypt's road accidents left 7,101 people dead in 2021, marking a 15.2% increase compared with 2020, the country's statistics agency CAPMAS said in a report last year.

Ignazio Cassis, Federal Councillor for Foreign Affairs of Switzerland and current president of the United Nations Security Council, presides over a meeting of the council, Wednesday, May 3, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)By EDITH M LEDERERThe world’s divided nations agreed Wednesday on one thing: There is a lack of trust in a world beset by conflicts and crises. Diplomats at the U.N. Security Council presented ideas on how to move toward a more peaceful future — a task they see as difficult, but not impossible. He recalled that when the United Nations was established on the ashes of World War II its mandate was to prevent another world war and there was trust among the former warring nations. But the international system where the world’s nations act together is “not bankrupt,” and “the real failure would be to do nothing,” he stressed.

Six Libyans are facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity and proselytising under laws increasingly being used to silence civil society and human rights organisations, say activists. A US citizen was arrested by Libya’s Internal Security Agency (ISA) last month, but was released and is understood to have left the country. His face unclear in the video, Madi said: “I was born in 1977 and I was arrested by the Internal Security Unit for converting to Christianity. According to the human rights organisation Humanists International, Libya’s legislation is largely based around religion. A number of Libyan human rights activists have been killed or have had to flee the country.

A Libyan delegation consisting of Libyan border guard and Libyan customs officers attended the World Border Congress 2023 in Skopje, North Macedonia from 25 to 27 April, EUBAM Libya reported today. Libya struggles to protect its borders“Currently, Libyan border guards struggle to fulfil their tasks related to border surveillance with responsibilities to tackling cross-border crimes”, Luis Puig, EUBAM Libya’s Head of the Border Management Unit said. “Libyan border guards are lacking operational capabilities including equipment and require smart border technology which is not set up yet. Strengthen the operational capacity of the Libyan border management agenciesThe overall objective of the attendance was to strengthen the operational capacity of the Libyan border management agencies at border crossing points (BCPs) and the areas between. It was also to gain the knowledge of the benefits of the use of smart technology in the border control tasks (border checks and border surveillance) and to implement smart border surveillance technology.

Government pushbacks and reluctance to carry out rescues at sea is believed to be the main reason behind a substantial drop of asylum seekers in the country, the 2022 Asylum Information Database report has shown. The report provides in-depth information on the various aspects of the asylum regime: asylum procedure, reception conditions, detention, content of international protection. The report was researched and written by aditus foundation and was edited by European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE). “We were only able to secure asylum statistics through a Freedom of Information request. “Despite this, non-vulnerable asylum seekers must exit the open centre at six months and this also terminates material reception conditions.”READ ALSO | Immigration: Boat arrivals on the decline since Malta-Libya MoU

Former Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti has warned Europe of the ongoing civil war in Sudan in a statement to Libero Quotidiano. “The repercussions of the war in Sudan have not yet become clear, but they are already worrying,” Minniti stated. “The European Union is mistaken in its perspective towards Tunisia. It cannot submit its decisions to the decisions of the International Monetary Fund,” Minniti explained. The European Union cannot abandon its role.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the Arab League, has stated that there is a crisis in the Libyan file and no positive results or progress have been made. “The extremist groups that trade in religion are putting the world in the face of extremism. There is a crisis in the Libyan file and no positive results or progress have been made,” Aboul Gheit said in a televised interview on Tuesday. Libya has been experiencing a state of political stagnation since the postponement of last year’s presidential and legislative elections and with the slow negotiations between the House of Representatives and the High State Council over a law regulating the new elections.

The fate of the economic situation between Turkey and Libya will be determined after presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14, according to Turkish international relations expert, Mohammed Ozkan. Ozkan stated that the return of all Turkish companies to Libya is important. Speaking to the “Sada” newspaper, Ozkan said, “Turkish companies have turned to alternative trade and investments in many countries, including Africa, so I don’t think they have the same importance as in the past.”Regarding Turkey’s economic interests in Libya, he explained that Turkey’s interest in Libya is more geopolitical than economic. However, if Libya stabilizes, there may be a clear economic relationship between the two countries. In addition to military and economic support, Turkey and the Tripoli-based government signed a controversial maritime agreement in November 2019, which established a maritime boundary between the two countries in the eastern Mediterranean.

This allows Russian oil firms to operate in Libya and do work for the Libyan national oil company. Russia and the Turks refuse to withdraw their troops from Libya until they receive guarantees that their interests in Libya are respected. In Libya the eastern faction proved very effective at controlling Islamic terrorist activities and gradually eliminating most of them. The EU support has also reduced the ability of people smuggling gangs to get illegal migrants into Libya and then into Europe by boat. Most of the fatalities among the illegal migrants occur at sea when overloaded smuggler boats sink and most of the people on board drown.

To recognize the critical work by Libyan partners to clear mines and explosive remnants of war across Libya, representatives of the Government of National Unity, the Libyan Mine Action Centre, UNICEF, the UN Mine Action Service and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) came together to commemorate the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action in Libya on 2 May, according to UNSMIL. In 2022, Libyan partners cleared and destroyed some 18,000 explosive ordnances and deemed 2.3 million square meters of land safe. It is critical the Libyan government and international partners continue to work together to provide the resources needed to drive mine action efforts in support of a peaceful and stable Libya”. There are currently 130 task orders for implementing work managed by the Libyan Mine Action Centre through local and international partners. “Increased investment for explosive ordnance clearance in Libya is needed, especially in urban areas,” said Acting Chief of the UN Mine Action Programme in Libya, Sharmeela Aminath.

The number of people who have landed in Malta irregularly by boat has declined considerably after Malta and Libya signed a memorandum of understanding on irregular migration, Malta Today reported. Boat arrivals have been on the decline since 2020, particularly since Malta and Libya signed a memorandum of understanding on illegal migration.

The partnership between Silicon21 and SolarWinds will support the comprehensive SolarWinds® observability solutions; provide high-quality value services to recruit, enable, and train new channel partners; and extend the SolarWinds partner ecosystem landscape in Egypt, Libya, and Sudan to market and sell the SolarWinds portfolio. “This collaboration will enable us to leverage their strong footprint across Egypt, Libya, and Sudan and connect us to new partners and customers. “The SolarWinds portfolio will be a key player for Silicon21 in providing full monitoring and observability solutions in the market. All other SolarWinds trademarks, service marks, and logos may be common law marks or are registered or pending registration. All other trademarks mentioned herein are used for identification purposes only and are trademarks of (and may be registered trademarks of) their respective companies.

The United States returns to doing business in Libya. This fact was interpreted by experts as a desire of the United States to strengthen its economic influence in the southern Mediterranean to compensate for Russian oil exports to Europe. Halliburton will develop the Al-Zahr oil field in Sirte governorate, worth $1 billion, while Honeywell will build an oil refinery in the southwest worth $1 billion. Al-Zahr is the first oil field in commercial quantities discovered by al-Waha Company, a subsidiary of NOC, in the late 1950s. However, the United States is strongly demanding the removal, especially of the warlord Khalifa Haftar, from Russia and the Wagner group.

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Boat arrivals have been on the decline since 2020, particularly since Malta and Libya signed a memorandum of understanding on illegal migration. When the pandemic came around in 2020, the number of boat arrivals remained steady up until autumn, which saw arrivals decrease suddenly. As part of the memorandum, Malta is hosting a Libyan officer who is stationed at the Malta-Libya Coordination Centre in Malta. The other top countries of origin among sea arrivals in 2022 were Syria (28%), Egypt (8%), Lebanon (7%) and Palestine (4%). While Eritrean and Sudanese people made up almost 40% of arrivals in 2021, there were no sea arrivals whatsoever from Eritrea and Sudan the following year.