German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged greater support for Libya’s UN-backed unity government and called for a closer cooperation in addressing the refugee crisis.

In the wake of the CNN report on human auctions in Libya, there has rightly been a surge in concern for the thousands of Africans languishing in inhumane conditions in detention camps.

Human Rights Solidarity (HRS) has expressed deep concern over the mistreatment and abuse of migrants in Libya by human traffickers amid claims of being sold as slaves in “public auction”.

A group of UN human rights experts has strongly condemned Libya’s slave trade amid reports that hundreds of African refugees are being bought and sold in markets across the country every week.

Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj said on Thursday that he was hopeful that a UN-imposed arms embargo would be partially lifted against some branches of the country’s military.

The European Union, United Nations and African Union have agreed to an emergency plan to dismantle people-smuggling networks and repatriate stranded migrants, in an effort to ease a human rights disaster in Libya, officials said.

Hundreds of African refugees are being bought and sold in “slave markets” across Libya every week, a human trafficker has told Al Jazeera, with many of them held for ransom or forced into prostitution and sexual exploitation to pay their captors and smugglers.

Reports in recent weeks of sub-Saharan African migrants being sold as slaves in secret auctions in Libya, have caused shock and global condemnation.

Survivors of slave auctions in Libya speak of “unbearable torture” and “living hell”, as hidden camera footage showing migrants being sold off prompted global outrage last week.

An Islamic State (IS) militant who was involved in the beheading in Derna of a Libyan National Army (LNA) soldier in 2015 has been captured in an LNA undercover operation in the town, it has been revealed.