Diplomats at a UN Security Council meeting on human trafficking called Tuesday for investigations into slave auctions in Libya following a CNN report last week on the practice.

The US Africa Command (Africom) has carried out two more air strikes on Islamic State (IS) militants. According to a statement today, they took place last week, on 17 and 19 November. Both strike occurred near the desert town of Fugaha, some 230 kilometres north-east of Sebha.

The Libyan Government of National Accord announced it will launch a probe into media reports that African migrants are being sold as slaves in the country, days after the airing of a CNN report on the issue.

The Chief of Anti-Illegal Immigration Department (AIID) Mohammed Besher has denounced the allegations in the media reports about violations against illegal immigrants in Libya.

Nigerian Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yakubo said on Sunday that Niger had summoned the Libyan ambassador to Niamey to convey the resentment of his country over the selling of African migrants as slaves in Libya.

The UN secretary-general has said he is horrified by the CNN video footage showing sub-Saharan migrants being sold off as slaves in Libya.

The Chief of the General Directorate of Coast Security at the Libyan Interior Ministry, Colonel Tariq Sahnbour, has warned of international media reports and campaigns promoting the existence of a slave market in southern Libya.

Although it is not a new problem, the issue of migration has accelerated sharply in the past five years, and migration from mainly sub-Saharan African countries to Europe across Libya can be traced back to the year 2000.

A formal investigation into alleged migrant slave auctions in Libya has been launched, Libya’s Government of National Accord announced on Friday.

According to a defense official, the drone strike in the desert of central Libya Friday killed “several” ISIS militants in a sign the Pentagon may be ramping up pressure on terror groups in Africa, it added.