The story of Africans being sold in their native land again is horrific. Are we just waking up from our slumber and inability to see the wrong in our continent? If CNN was out of the picture, we would have been campaigning over trivial matters on the social media platforms while our brothers and sisters are sold for a mere $400 in Libya.
For the past three years, we have seen Africans head to Libya because of the ‘tempting Europe,’ and more than 250,000 migrants including refugees have entered Europe from Libya. These people erroneously believe that Europe is the ‘Land of Gold.’ So sad that we have lost talented and inspiring talents who could have change Africa from where they came from. Do we blame them? Some of these people have been forced into prostitution, sexually exploited, maimed for life, organs harvested, sold into slavery and many killed.
There are different trafficking networks like the Magafe Network, that has found a lucrative business in selling naïve and unsuspecting youths who are desperate! These youths are desperate to escape the poverty holding them in bondage in Africa. This notorious smuggling group awaits these young ones on the dusty and isolated Libyan Desert, where they are sold forever. Families have been broken, relationships destroyed and dreams lost in Libya!
The Magafe Network is the ‘Devilish’ Angel that comes to the rescue of these excited people especially East Africans, who are promised a life of freedom, monetary gains and a thrill. With the temptation of a renegade life beckoning, these people end up in the hands of slave buyers.
In Libya, the time has gone back to the slave era when brothers sell brothers for selfish reasons. At least there are about four slave markets that have operated in the country. Sometimes, it is very difficult to arrange for the evacuation of those stuck in areas monopolized by Marshall Haftar.
According to Amb. M.K. Ibrahim , a former Nigerian Ambassador to Libya:
Knowing Libya as much as I do, I wasn’t surprised to hear that African migrants were being sold as slaves in this troubled North African country. Indeed in a less formal sense, exploitation of African laborers working on farms in Libya wasn’t entirely new even during the rule of Col. Gaddafi. However, in post-Gaddafi Libya, things got worse as even indigenous Black Libyans are now subjected to despicable racial atrocities, because of the perception that most of them fought on the side of the pro-Gaddafi army during the NATO-inspired war that led to the killing of Gaddafi and the toppling of his government.
This is not the only reason why other sub-Saharan African migrants are hated in Libya. The locals erroneously believe that Gaddafi used their country’s wealth in taking care of other countries in Africa. We can recall the death of thousands of Africans who were executed after the death of Gaddafi without the international community raising a finger. There have been ethnic cleansing in Tawergha, after the Libyan war.
