Why a probe into the killing of notorious human trafficker ‘Bija’ is a test of Libya’s rule of law

Analysis Why a probe into the killing of notorious human trafficker ‘Bija’ is a test of Libya’s rule of law
Abdel-Rahman Milad also known as ‘Bija’. (Supplied)
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Updated 16 September 2024
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Why a probe into the killing of notorious human trafficker ‘Bija’ is a test of Libya’s rule of law

Why a probe into the killing of notorious human trafficker ‘Bija’ is a test of Libya’s rule of law
  • Abdel-Rahman Milad was killed in Tripoli on Sept. 1, raising fresh concerns about Libya’s political instability — and European border control
  • The former coast guard commander’s murder has cast a light on the country’s militia power struggles, organized crime, and political rivalries

LONDON: Abdel-Rahman Milad, known as “Bija,” a former coast guard commander notorious for human trafficking, was killed in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on Sept. 1, shining a harsh light on the North African country’s chaotic political landscape.

Milad’s death has drawn renewed attention to the intersections between the country’s rival militias, organized crime networks, and weak government institutions, and has raised questions about the wider implications for European border security.

“Milad’s assassination sends shockwaves far beyond Libya’s borders,” Anas El-Gomati, director of the Sadeq Institute, Libya’s first independent public policy think tank and research center based in Tripoli, told Arab News.

“For Europe, it’s a stark reminder that their outsourced border control is built on quicksand.”

Milad’s violent end marks the culmination of a long, controversial career that has become emblematic of the lawlessness and corruption that has plagued Libya since the fall of Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

For more than a decade, the oil-rich nation has been divided between two rival administrations, each with its own international backers and militia allies. Its dysfunctional governance has left it seemingly unable to reform its economy or provide for its population.

This was amply demonstrated in September last year, when devastating floods hit the coastal town of Derna after Storm Daniel caused two dams to collapse, unleashing torrents of water that swept away entire neighborhoods.

The disaster left thousands dead or missing, many of them migrants who had arrived in the town with plans to make the sea crossing to Europe. Political instability hindered rescue efforts, and recovery has been slow due to the fractured state of the country.

“Libya’s chaos didn’t just emerge — it was engineered,” said El-Gomati. “Bija’s death highlights a painful truth about Libya’s ongoing turmoil. It’s not just a story of internal strife but one of international negligence and miscalculation.”

Indeed, multiple foreign powers have interfered in Libyan affairs since Qadaffi’s ouster, creating the conditions for armed groups and criminal gangs to flourish.

“The residual division and stalemate is untenable and has allowed international and local actors to shape the chaos to their advantage,” said El-Gomati. “This persistent instability is a direct result of enabling those who thrive on the country’s dysfunction.”

Milad was a prominent figure in the Libyan Coast Guard, commanding a unit in Zawiya, a coastal town in the west of the country that had become a hotspot for people smuggling. While officially responsible for intercepting migrant boats, Milad was deeply involved in human trafficking.

He was sanctioned by the UN Security Council in 2018 for his role in sinking migrant boats and for working with smuggling networks to exploit migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Libya’s geographic position as a gateway to Europe has made it a prime route for migrants from Africa and the Middle East seeking better lives, but it has also turned the country into a battleground for smuggling networks and militias seeking to profit from the chaos.

The EU’s strategy of relying on Libyan forces to control migration flows has been called into question, with many warning that it has done little to address the root causes of migration or the human rights abuses that migrants face in Libya.

“The real question is whether this crisis will force Europe to rethink its approach to migration management in Libya, or if it will continue to rely on an unstable and corrupt system that only perpetuates chaos,” said El-Gomati.

Milad’s notoriety stemmed not only from his criminal activities but also from his involvement in international diplomacy. In 2017, he participated in a meeting in Sicily, where Libyan Coast Guard officials and humanitarian agencies discussed migration control.

Despite being under suspicion for human trafficking, Milad attended the summit, highlighting potential complicity, or at the very least negligence, on the part of Italian authorities.

His presence at this meeting sparked outrage, with many suggesting that European governments were aware of the criminal ties of Libyan officials but chose to turn a blind eye in exchange for cooperation in stemming the flow of migrants to Europe.

The controversy underscored the fraught relationship between European countries, particularly Italy, and Libya over migration. In 2017, Italy brokered a deal with Libya’s UN-recognized government, then led by Fayez Al-Sarraj, to prevent migrant boats from reaching European shores.

As part of the agreement, Italy provided funds, equipment, and training to the Libyan Coast Guard, which was tasked with intercepting migrants and returning them to Libya. However, this strategy has been widely criticized for subjecting migrants to inhumane conditions, including torture and extortion in detention centers controlled by militias.

Rights groups have long condemned the EU’s approach, claiming that by partnering with Libyan authorities, European governments are complicit in the abuses that migrants face once they are returned to Libya.

Milad, as a central figure in this system, reportedly profited from these arrangements, with accusations that intercepted migrants were held in detention centers where they had to pay bribes for their release.

“Bija was involved in the strategic decisions about the naval assets of the Libyan Coast Guard that would be sent for the interceptions of migrants at sea, as well as being involved in identifying disembarkation points on the coast,” Nancy Porsia, an Italian journalist who has long tracked Milad’s activities, told Arab News.

“The disembarkation points are extremely important when it comes to the main business of detention. In fact, nowadays, the real gain out of human smuggling in Libya is not the organization of sea crossings — rather, it is the business of detention, which is funded by the international community, and also the business of the interceptions.”

Porsia knows only too well how deeply entangled Milad was in the world of criminality. She was given a security detail after Milad threatened her and her family due to her reporting on his human trafficking activities.

Milad’s crimes were not limited to human trafficking, however. He was also reportedly involved in fuel smuggling, using his position in the coast guard to control illicit trade routes in western Libya.

These criminal operations likely helped fuel the wider conflict in Libya, where rival factions and militias have vied for control of resources and territory.

Milad’s close connections with various militias in Zawiya allowed him to operate with impunity for years, despite being the subject of multiple international sanctions.

In 2020, Milad was arrested by Libyan authorities on charges of human trafficking and fuel smuggling. However, after serving only six months in prison, he was released and even promoted within the coast guard.

FASTFACTS

• Abdel-Rahman Milad, or ‘Bija,’ was a former Libyan Coast Guard commander notorious for human trafficking.

• He was killed in Tripoli on Sept. 1, raising concerns about Libya’s political instability and migration control.

His release sparked outrage, with many questioning the Libyan government’s commitment to tackling human trafficking. Milad’s ability to move freely in western Libya despite his criminal background further highlighted the weak rule of law and the power wielded by the militias.

However, Milad’s misdeeds eventually caught up with him. On Sept. 1, he was shot dead while sitting in a chauffeur-driven car in the Sayyad area of Tripoli.

His death was met with mixed reactions. Some Libyan officials, including militia leader Moammar Dhawi and Abdullah Allafi, deputy head of the Presidential Council, have expressed condolences and called for an investigation.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killing, and the motive remains unclear.

Some speculate that his killing could be linked to infighting among Libyan militias or to his potential threats to reveal incriminating information about the dealings between the Libyan Coast Guard and human smuggling networks.

The arrest of Mohamed Bahroun, another militia leader from Zawiya and commander of the First Support Battalion, in connection with Milad’s death adds another layer of complexity to the case, suggesting that the killing may have been the result of a power struggle.

“Bija was killed in the context of the political struggle in his own town, Zawiya,” said Porsia. “For months now, there have been armed confrontations in Zawiya. It is a unique case across the whole of Libya.

“Bija and Bahroun, better known as Al-Far, are competitors because both are officers who, under the table, carry out illicit trafficking, as corrupted officers … Al-Far was in theory the main competitor to Bija. So, it might be true that he ordered this murder.

“Or it might be that it was actually done by the prosecutor’s office to pin this murder, which is of course so political, with strong political consequences, on a character, a player, like Al-Far.”

El-Gomati likewise believes the murder can only be understood in the wider context of Libya’s political and criminal landscape.

“Milad’s assassination isn’t just the silencing of a single man — it’s a power play,” he said. “His death could be seen as a settling of scores, a pre-emptive strike, or a message to others in his network.

“To some, Milad was seen as a hero who built the naval academy and was pushing back against human smuggling. To others in Zawiya, he was a threat to their smuggling networks.

“Bahroun, a key figure in Zawiya’s smuggling underworld, had every reason to see Milad removed, and their rivalry was well documented.

“If he was indeed disrupting Bahroun’s operations, his death could realign the balance of power in Zawiya, giving rival smuggling factions room to expand. The murder sent a message — those who challenge the status quo don’t survive.”

He added: “Bahroun’s arrest might cause a temporary disruption in human trafficking routes, but history shows that new players will quickly fill the void.”

How prosecutors handle the investigation into Bahroun, who handed himself in to authorities voluntarily, could be seen as a test for the rule of law in Libya — determining where power really lies in the troubled country.

“This case is a litmus test for the very concept of rule of law in a fractured state,” said El-Gomati. “Can a country where ‘might often makes right’ suddenly deliver impartial justice? The handling of Milad’s case will either be a turning point or another nail in the coffin of Libya’s legal institutions.”

Milad’s death is a symptom of the larger problems facing Libya. Since Qaddafi’s fall, the country has been divided between rival governments, with the UN-backed administration in the west and the government of military strongman Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar in the east.

“The reality is that the strongest armed groups and figures like Haftar, who escape accountability despite waging war and assassinations, underscore the deep flaws in Libya’s justice system,” said El-Gomati.

“Tripoli’s actions will reveal whether it can enforce true justice this time or merely manage a facade.”

For El-Gomati, the old model of engagement with Libya by foreign powers, including the UN, the EU, Russia, Turkiye, and others, has to change.

“For Libya to break free from this cycle, there needs to be a fundamental shift in how the international community engages,” he said.

“It requires more than just selective sanctions and recycled initiatives. It demands a rethinking of the UN’s roadmap to elections and a commitment to holding all players accountable for their role in its disruption. It needs real consequences for those who exploit the country’s misery.

“Until the rules of the game change, Libya will remain a playground for the powerful and a prison for its people.”

For Porsia, who herself became part of the Milad story after his threats to kill her and her family, the murder has only confirmed her grim assessment that Libya is a “failed state,” run “according to the dynamics of a mafia network.

“After his assassination, I don’t feel safer, in terms of the ability to return to Libya, because the problem is not Bija but the system itself,” she said.

“And then I feel also sorry because it’s a confirmation that Libya is not going to recover from the chaos any time soon, and the murder of Bija itself was an excellent example of a political assassination. And it was done in broad daylight.”

 


Hezbollah readies massive funeral for slain leader Nasrallah

Hezbollah readies massive funeral for slain leader Nasrallah
Updated 39 sec ago
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Hezbollah readies massive funeral for slain leader Nasrallah

Hezbollah readies massive funeral for slain leader Nasrallah
Hezbollah has announced strict security measures and urged security forces to help manage crowds
Hassan Wehbe, 60, an electrician in Beirut’s southern suburbs, said the funeral would be “a historic day“

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah is preparing for a massive turnout for the funeral on Sunday of its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, an opportunity for a show of strength by the Iran-backed group after a bruising war with Israel.
Nasrallah’s death nearly five months ago in a huge Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs left Hezbollah supporters in disbelief and sent shockwaves across Lebanon and the region.
The country will stop for Sunday’s funeral, to be held at 1:00 p.m. (1100 GMT) at the Camille Chamoun sports stadium on the capital’s outskirts.
Hezbollah has announced strict security measures and urged security forces to help manage crowds that are expected to number in the tens of thousands, with people pouring in from Hezbollah strongholds across the country, as well as from abroad.
Hassan Wehbe, 60, an electrician in Beirut’s southern suburbs, said the funeral would be “a historic day.”
“There will be huge participation. Israel will see that we are not afraid,” he said.
Hezbollah has invited senior Lebanese officials including the president.
Its key foreign backer Iran has said it will participate “at a high level,” without specifying who will attend.
Nicholas Blanford, a Beirut-based Hezbollah expert and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said it was important for Hezbollah “to be able to demonstrate that they haven’t been cowed — that they are still a popular force” within the Shiite community.
The funeral “is going to be exactly the event for that,” he told AFP.
The ceremony is expected to last around an hour, including a speech by current leader Naim Qassem, who has called for a huge turnout.
A procession will follow to Nasrallah’s burial site near the airport road, now lined with yellow Hezbollah flags and images of him and other slain Hezbollah figures.
Civil aviation authorities said Beirut airport will close exceptionally and flights will be suspended from midday until 4:00 pm.
The US embassy has urged Americans to avoid the area.
Hezbollah was battered by more than a year of hostilities with Israel that culminated in two months of full-blown war before a ceasefire took effect on November 27.
After Nasrallah was killed on September 27, the group delayed his funeral due to security concerns.
The ceremony will also be for Hashem Safieddine, who was chosen to succeed Nasrallah before being killed in a later Israeli strike.
Safieddine will be buried on Monday in his southern hometown of Deir Qanun Al-Nahr.
The charismatic, bespectacled Nasrallah has long enjoyed cult status among his supporters.
For Ahmed Hallani, 35, taking part is “a religious and moral duty.”
Nasrallah is “our leader and the leader of our victories. We will stay beside him, alive or dead,” he said.
Iraqi Airways and Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines have increased services between Baghdad and Beirut ahead of the funeral.
Representatives of Iraq’s main pro-Iran factions are to participate, while several Iraqi lawmakers are expected to attend privately.
One of Hezbollah’s founders in 1982, Nasrallah was elected secretary-general a decade later after Israel killed his predecessor.
He won renown in the Arab world after Israel withdrew its troops from south Lebanon under relentless Hezbollah attack in May 2000, ending 22 years of occupation of the border strip.
Nasrallah’s years at the helm saw the group expand from guerrilla faction into the most powerful political force in Lebanon, only to be battered in the latest conflict.
Lebanon has said more than 4,000 people have been killed since hostilities began in October 2023, most of them after Israel ramped up its campaign in September, later sending in ground troops.
Among the dead are hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and a slew of senior commanders.
Israel has missed two deadlines to complete its withdrawal under the ceasefire agreement, and still has troops deployed in five places on the Lebanese side of the border after its latest pullback earlier this week.

Israel military says it has received the bodies of dead Gaza hostages

Israel military says it has received the bodies of dead Gaza hostages
Updated 20 February 2025
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Israel military says it has received the bodies of dead Gaza hostages

Israel military says it has received the bodies of dead Gaza hostages
  • The remains to be released from the Gaza Strip are of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir
  • Thousands of people, including large numbers of masked and armed fighters from Hamas and other factions, gathered at the handover site on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city

KHAN YOUNIS/JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it had received the bodies of the deceased hostages handed over by Hamas, through the Red Cross, in Gaza on Thursday.
“The hostages’ bodies were handed over to IDF (military) and ISA (security agency) representatives in Gaza,” a military spokesperson said. A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had “received the caskets of four fallen hostages.”

The Red Cross had received four coffins during the handover earlier on Thursday of the bodies of Israeli hostages, including Bibas family members, in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, an AFP journalist reported.
Staff loaded the caskets onto trucks after covering them in white shrouds as a crowd of hundreds watched in the rain.
The remains are of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir. Kfir was the youngest captive taken that day. Hamas has said all three were killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the war. The militant group also plans to release the body of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted.
“The heart of an entire nation breaks,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday in anticipation of the bodies being returned to Israel.
Thousands of people, including large numbers of masked and armed fighters from Hamas and other factions, gathered at the handover site on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where large banners had been set up, including one showing an image of coffins draped in Israeli flags.
There were no plans to broadcast the handover live in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, where Israelis have gathered to watch the release of living hostages. The square was empty as it rained on and off in both locations, which are about 100 kilometers (60 miles) apart.
Israelis have celebrated the return of 24 living hostages in recent weeks under a tenuous ceasefire that paused over 15 months of war. But the handover on Thursday will provide a grim reminder of those who died in captivity as the talks leading up to the truce dragged on for over a year.
It could also provide impetus for negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire that have hardly begun. The first phase is set to end at the beginning of March.
Infant was the youngest taken hostage
Kfir Bibas was just 9 months old, a red-headed infant with a toothless smile, when militants stormed into the family’s home on Oct. 7, 2023. His brother Ariel was 4. Video shot that day showed a terrified Shiri swaddling the two boys as militants led them into Gaza.
Her husband, Yarden Bibas, was taken separately and released this month after 16 months in captivity.
Relatives in Israel have clung to hope, marking Kfir’s first and second birthdays and his brother’s fifth. The Bibas family said in a statement Wednesday that it would wait for “identification procedures” before acknowledging that their loved ones were dead.
Supporters throughout Israel have worn orange in solidarity with the family — a reference to two boys’ red hair — and a popular children’s song was written in their honor.
Like the Bibas family, Oded Lifshitz was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with his wife Yocheved, who was freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. Oded was a journalist who campaigned for the recognition of Palestinian rights and peace between Arabs and Jews.
Hamas-led militants abducted 251 hostages, including some 30 children, in the Oct. 7 attack, in which they also killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
More than half the hostages, and most of the women and children, have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight and have recovered dozens of bodies of people killed in the initial attack or who died in captivity.
It’s not clear if the ceasefire will last
Hamas is set to free six living hostages on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and says it will release four more bodies next week, completing the ceasefire’s first phase. That will leave the militants with some 60 hostages, all men, around half of whom are believed to be dead.
Hamas has said it won’t release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu, with the full backing of the Trump administration, says he is committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capacities and returning all the hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.
Trump’s proposal to remove some 2 million Palestinians from Gaza so the US can own and rebuild it, which has been embraced by Israel but universally rejected by Palestinians and Arab countries, has thrown the ceasefire into further doubt.
Hamas could be reluctant to free more hostages if it believes the war will resume with the goal of annihilating the group or forcibly transferring Gaza’s population.
Israel’s military offensive killed over 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its records. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The offensive destroyed vast areas of Gaza, reducing entire neighborhoods to fields of rubble and bombed-out buildings. At its height, the war displaced 90 percent of Gaza’s population. Many have returned to their homes to find nothing left and no way of rebuilding.


Yemeni minister calls for arrest of Houthi officials attending Hezbollah chief Nasrallah’s funeral

Yemeni minister calls for arrest of Houthi officials attending Hezbollah chief Nasrallah’s funeral
Updated 20 February 2025
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Yemeni minister calls for arrest of Houthi officials attending Hezbollah chief Nasrallah’s funeral

Yemeni minister calls for arrest of Houthi officials attending Hezbollah chief Nasrallah’s funeral
  • The Houthis did not officially announce a delegation was attending the funeral, but the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported a delegation from Yemen would participate

CAIRO: Yemeni Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani called on Wednesday for the arrest of a group of leaders from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis who he said will attend Lebanese Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral in Beirut.
Nasrallah, who had served as Hezbollah’s secretary general for more than 30 years, was killed on September 27 as Israel ramped up its attacks on southern Lebanon. His funeral is scheduled for February 23.
Eryani demanded that the Lebanese government arrest the Houthi leaders and hand them over to the rival internationally recognized government in a post on X.
He did not name the Houthi officials.
Neither the Lebanese government nor Houthi leaders was immediately available for comment.
The Houthis did not officially announce a delegation was attending the funeral, but the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported a delegation from Yemen would participate. “We affirm that the movement of these terrorist leaders... in this timing is not a mere participation in the funeral, which is being used as a cover, to gather all the leaders of the Iranian axis and assess the situation after the blows they received,” he added.
The Yemeni minister was referring to the recent Israeli attacks against Iran-backed groups in the region including Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Both groups launched parallel attacks against Israel during its war in Gaza to show support for Palestinians.
The Houthis, who control northern Yemen, also carried out more than 100 attacks on ships off the shores of Yemen since November 2023, disrupting global shipping and causing route changes and losses.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023 killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, laid waste to much of the enclave, and displaced hundreds of thousands.


Sudan crisis could worsen if paramilitaries declare parallel govt: UN

Sudan crisis could worsen if paramilitaries declare parallel govt: UN
Updated 20 February 2025
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Sudan crisis could worsen if paramilitaries declare parallel govt: UN

Sudan crisis could worsen if paramilitaries declare parallel govt: UN

UNITED NATIONS: The crisis in Sudan could worsen if paramilitary forces fighting the army go ahead with plans to declare a parallel government, the United Nations warned Wednesday.
“For us, preserving the unity of Sudan, the sovereignty and the territorial integrity, remains a key ingredient for a sustainable resolution of the conflict,” the UN secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
At a high-profile event in Nairobi this week, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, at war with the Sudanese army for nearly two years, said they would sign a founding charter that would lead to the formation of a “peace and unity government” in Sudan.
Initially scheduled for Tuesday at Nairobi’s state-owned Kenyatta International Convention Center, the signing was postponed to Friday.
“We’re very deeply concerned about any further escalation of the Sudanese conflict, and any steps like this one, which would increase the fragmentation of the country and risk making this crisis even worse,” Dujarric said of the planned proclamation.
Sudan’s foreign ministry, loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, criticized Kenya for allowing the event.
Since April 2023, the war between the army and RSF has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.


Israel says 3 Palestinian militants killed in West Bank

Israel says 3 Palestinian militants killed in West Bank
Updated 20 February 2025
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Israel says 3 Palestinian militants killed in West Bank

Israel says 3 Palestinian militants killed in West Bank
  • A Palestinian official confirmed that three people had been killed by Israeli forces

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it killed three “wanted terrorists” in the occupied West Bank Wednesday, and a Palestinian official reported that Israeli forces were holding the bodies of three people.
Soldiers “eliminated three wanted terrorists in the area of Al Faraa, who sold weapons for terror purposes,” the military said in a statement.
“Two additional wanted individuals were apprehended.”
A Palestinian official confirmed that three people had been killed by Israeli forces.
“Three people were assassinated, and their bodies are being held” by the Israeli forces, Tubas governor Ahmad Al-Asaad told AFP.
Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has escalated since the October 2023 outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip.
At least 897 Palestinians including militants have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza war began, according to an AFP tally based on figures provided by the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah.
At least 32 Israelis, including some soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or confrontations during Israeli operations in the West Bank over the same period, according to official Israeli figures.