Libyan naval forces captured two vessels suspected of smuggling oil from the North African country after gun battles lasting several hours west of the capital Tripoli, a spokesman for the service said on Friday, according to Reuters.

Zuccaro says has evidence that NGOs rescuing migrants in direct contact with people traffickers in Libya, charities dismiss claims.

The fuel and gas crisis committee has announced that air and naval forces had formed an operations room to end the crisis of fuel smuggling from Libya.

Human traffickers must be brought to justice UNSMIL chief Martin Kobler has told the Presidency Council (PC).

Hundreds of African refugees and migrants passing through Libya are being bought and sold in modern-day slave markets before being held for ransom or used as forced labour or for sexual exploitation, survivors have told the UN’s migration agency.

The Chairman of the fuel and gas committee of Brega Oil and Gas Marketing Company, Milad Al-Hajrasi, has hailed the stance of Libyans toward the committee personnel and their support for the committee’s ongoing operations.

European and North African nations will step up military operations to target human traffickers in a bid to stymie migration flows, according to a deal reached on Monday.

22 migrants have been killed and some 100 injured in fighting between rival smuggler gangs in Libya so far this year. This comes at a time when seaborne migration from Africa to Italy has risen by 50 percent so far in 2017.

On February 21, the bodies of 74 migrants were found by the Libyan Red Crescent on the shore of Zawiya, a Libyan town known for being a capital of fuel smuggling and human trafficking.

Italy is gathering good information on Libyan people-traffickers, prime minister Paolo Gentiloni said in Rome today, adding that the country’s intelligence services were doing a great job.