Libya

The Libyan coast guard arrested about 600 African migrants, including a  pregnant woman and 18 minors, who were trying to board a fishing boat in an apparent attempt to land on some EU shore.

Libya, which is in chaos after Gaddafi’s downfall, has since become a portal for illegal immigration from sub-Saharan Africa into Europe via the Mediterranean.

A militia alliance that controls Libya's capital has carried out air strikes against positions of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group in the coastal city of Sirte, an official said.
 

European Union leaders gathering for an extraordinary summit are facing calls from all sides to take emergency action to save lives in the Mediterranean, where hundreds of migrants are missing and feared drowned in recent days.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has noted that 1,300 emigrants have found their death in the Mediterranean only in April.

The international community has condemned the slaughter of at least 28 Ethiopian Christians in an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) video, with Ethiopia confirming that the victims were its citizens. 

Islamic State (IS) released a new video, which purportedly shows the killing of up to thirty Ethiopian Christians in Libya.

The video depicts one group of men being beheaded on a beach and another group being shot in the head in a desert, the BBC reports.

The victims are believed to be members of the Ethiopian Church, who had been captured by IS militants in Libya.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged the European Union on Sunday to urgently come up with a plan to tackle a mounting migrant humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean.

"The Mediterranean must stop being a graveyard sea and southern European countries a storage of human souls,» Tsipras said in a televised address.

A boat crowded with 700 migrants overturned north of Libya on Saturday, leaving at least 24 confirmed dead and many missing. Italy's Coast Guard stated that the migrants' 20-meter vessel could have capsized as the people on board rushed to one side of the craft after seeing a Portuguese merchant vessel approach it.

As many as 700 people are feared dead after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the Libyan coast overnight, a United Nations official said on April 19. 

Fifteen irregular Muslim immigrants from Africa, traveling on a boat to Italy, threw 12 Christian passengers into the Mediterranean Sea. Witnesses say that the incident occured after a brawl on board.

The police were informed and arrested the Muslim immigrants. Reports did not indicate what happened to the Christians and it is presumed that they were pulled back onto the ship.