Volunteers remain detained in Libya after a bid to deliver aid to Gaza by land collapsed amid violence and obstruction
A land convoy attempting to deliver aid to Gaza has been forced to abandon its mission after days of escalating obstruction, violence and arrests in eastern Libya.
The news comes two weeks after openDemocracy reported on how the convoy had become trapped by the refusal of Libyan militias to allow their passage through a checkpoint near Sirte, as they attempted to continue east towards Egypt.
Days after our article was published, ten members of a negotiating delegation approached a nearby checkpoint to discuss safe passage for the humanitarian mission. They were forced into unmarked white vans, taken to an unknown location and cut off from communication, according to Global Sumud. A further volunteer, 24-year-old Tunisian technical team member Mehdi Bouzguenda, had already been detained five days earlier while attempting to return home near the Tunisian-Libyan border.
“After our comrades were detained, we were attacked by two Libyan militias and our camp was destroyed,” South African writer and convoy participant Jessica Breakey told openDemocracy this week. “They escorted us all the way back to Tripoli.”
