Photos: Five African migrants die, 15 injured following mass escape from overcrowded detention centre in Libya

At least five African migrants have died and 15 injured, some of them seriously after guards at a detention in the coastal town of Zawiya opened fire during a mass escape early on Saturday morning, April 2. According to sources, a large group of African migrants attempted to escape from the centre around 1am on Saturday morning.

The details are still sketchy but at one point there seems to have been a confrontation between some of the escaping migrants and guards who form part of the Al Nasser Militia, also responsible for guarding the nearby refinery.


"We don’t know how it happened yet but at one point there was an exchange of fire. It didn’t last long but at least five migrants are dead and 15 are injured," a source from Zawiya told Migrant Report


The injured were taken to the nearby hospital in Zawiya, which is about 45kms from the capital Tripoli. The detention centre in Zawiya is severely overcrowded with more thousands of migrants.


"We are informed there may be as many as 15,000 migrants," the same source told Migrant Report. "The conditions are terrible, severe overcrowding, no proper sanitation or proper medical facilities. It’s disastrous," he said.

Most of the migrants staying there were arrested or intercepted at sea this year, according to the source.


Source: Migrant Report