2019 Tajoura migrant center airstrike

2019 Tajoura migrant center airstrike
Part of Libyan Civil War (2014–present) and the European migrant crisis
2019 Tajoura migrant center airstrike is located in Libya
2019 Tajoura migrant center airstrike
2019 Tajoura migrant center airstrike (Libya)
LocationTajoura, Libya
Coordinates32°50′05″N 13°23′05″E / 32.83472°N 13.38472°E / 32.83472; 13.38472
Date2 July 2019 [1][2]
23:30 [1]
TargetWeapons storage warehouse/Nearby military base
Attack type
Airstrike
Deaths53[3]
Injured130+[4][5]
PerpetratorsUN member state (per United Nations investigators)[6]
Libya Libyan National Army (per Government of National Accord; denied by Libyan National Army)

On 2 July 2019 at 23:30,[1][2] during the 2019–20 Western Libya campaign, an airstrike hit the Tajoura Detention Center outside Tripoli, Libya, while hundreds of people were inside the facility.[7] The detention center was being used as a holding facility for migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe when a storage hangar that it used as a residential facility was destroyed in an aerial bombing. The United Nations Human Rights Council stated that "It was known that there were 600 people living inside" the facility.[4][8]

At least 53 people were killed and 130 were wounded.[3] The LNA, which reportedly committed the strike targeting unarmed civilians, was condemned by several countries. The airstrike also raised scrutiny of the European Union's policy of cooperating with militias to detain migrants, and funding and training the Libyan Coast Guard which apprehended most of the migrants and refugees.[4][7]

The Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) initially claimed that the airstrike was conducted by the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Khalifa Haftar[7] but later attributed the attack to a United Arab Emirates (UAE) aircraft. In November 2019, United Nations investigators suspected that a non-Libyan Mirage 2000-9 jet had bombed the center.[6] A January 2020 report by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated that the strike was likely to have been carried out with a guided bomb fired from a non-Libyan aircraft, again suggesting that a foreign Mirage 2000-9 had been used.[9]

  1. ^ a b c Murdock, Heather (3 July 2019). "Deadly Libya Bombing May Be War Crime". Voice of America. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  2. ^ a b Hill, Evan; Khavin, Dimitry; Triebert, Christiaan; Brown, Malachy; Botti, David (10 July 2019). Europe Shut These Migrants Out, Libyan Rebels Bombed Them. New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  3. ^ a b "Libya migrants 'fired on after fleeing attack'". BBC. 4 July 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  4. ^ a b c Musa, Rami; Magdy, Samy (3 July 2019). "Airstrike kills 44 migrants in Libyan detention center". Associated Press. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Ganguly, Manisha (6 November 2019). "Foreign jet suspected in Libya migrant attack". BBC News.
  7. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference npr was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "MSF RESPONSE: Deadly airstrikes on Tajoura detention centre". Médecins Sans Frontières. 3 July 2019. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference UNSMIL_OHCHR_Tajoura_strike_report was invoked but never defined (see the help page).