A video showing migrants being tortured by human traffickers in Libya went viral on social media following a report by CNN showing footage of migrants being sold as slaves there.

UK police have detained a French businessman as part of a long-running investigation into suspected Libyan financing of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign, officials said yesterday.

Unknown assailants driving a four-wheel drive vehicle at the Benghazi University campus forced a student into their vehicle and then drove off to an unknown destination on Sunday.

European governments are “complicit” in grave human rights violations in Libya through their support for authorities there that often work with people smugglers and torture refugees and migrants, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

Chairman the Presidential Council, Fayaz Sarraj, and Italian Interior Minister, Marco Minniti, agreed on Saturday on establishing a joint operation room to combat smugglers and human traffickers.

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.