A total of 22 migrants have been killed and some 100 injured in fighting between rival smuggler gangs in Libya so far this year. This comes at a time when seaborne migration from Africa to Italy has risen by 50 percent so far in 2017. “The dead were thought to be migrants rather than smugglers because they were sub-Saharan Africans,” he added. With Gaddafi gone, a power vacuum developed, and Libya quickly split into two with the Tobruk-based parliament and the unity government (NTC) in Tripoli vying for control. To further complicate matters, various militant groups, including the Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL), began carving out their own fiefdoms in violent power plays across the war-torn countryside.

Source: Libya Today March 07, 2017 23:37 UTC