The International Organization for Migration (IOM) welcomes the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza and urges all parties to prioritise the safety and well-being of civilians, bringing an end to the violence and suffering.

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached a breaking point. Hospitals are destroyed, medical supplies depleted, and healthcare workers overwhelmed. Hunger is escalating, with food stocks exhausted and the World Food Programme (WFP) warning of famine, particularly in the besieged North. Families lack shelter and essential aid, leaving them exposed to the cold, with at least eight newborns tragically succumbing to hypothermia this winter.

IOM calls on all parties to ensure unimpeded humanitarian access. IOM, in coordination with its partners, stands ready to immediately scale up aid delivery, with nearly 4 million pre-positioned shelter, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) items, as well as other essentials, ready for deployment from Jordan and Egypt to the most affected populations.

Immediate efforts are required to support displaced families, prioritise their safe return, and place their protection at the core of recovery efforts. IOM calls on all parties to uphold their commitments and respect international law to ensure the safety and dignity of affected populations.

IOM remains committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure that the ceasefire serves as a foundation for sustained relief and recovery, allowing families to rebuild their lives with dignity and safety.

Naima Jamal, a 20-year-old Ethiopian woman from Oromia, was abducted shortly after her arrival in Libya in May 2024. Since then, her family has been subjected to enormous demands from human traffickers, their calls laden with threats and cruelty, their ransom demands rise and shift with each passing week. The latest demand: $6,000 for her release.

This morning, the traffickers sent a video of Naima being tortured. The footage, which her family received with horror, shows the unimaginable brutality of Libya’s trafficking networks. Naima is not alone. In another image sent alongside the video, over 50 other victims can be seen, their bodies and spirits shackled, awaiting to be auctioned like commodities in a market that has no place in humanity but thrives in Libya, a nation where the echoes of its ancient slave trade still roar loud and unbroken.

“This is the reality of Libya today,” writes activist and survivor David Yambio in response to this atrocity. “It is not enough to call it chaotic or lawless; that would be too kind. Libya is a machine built to grind Black bodies into dust. The auctions today carry the same cold calculations as those centuries ago: a man reduced to the strength of his arms, a woman to the curve of her back, a child to the potential of their years.”

Naima’s present situation is one of many. Libya has become a graveyard for Black migrants, a place where the dehumanization of Blackness is neither hidden nor condemned. Traffickers operate openly, fueled by impunity and the complicity of systems that turn a blind eye to this horror. And the world, Yambio reminds us, looks the other way:

“Libya is Europe’s shadow, the unspoken truth of its migration policy—a hell constructed by Arab racism and fueled by European indifference. They call it border control, but it is cruelty dressed in bureaucracy.”

The $6,000 ransom demanded for Naima is not just a price for her life; it is a price for the silence of a global community that allows this horror to happen to the black child. And yet, for many, this is not survival, it is a cycle of endless suffering.

Naima’s fate, and that of the 50 other victims in Kufra, remains uncertain. Their cries are met with indifference by those who could intervene but choose not to. Meanwhile, their families are left to battle with the impossible, raising the funds demanded by traffickers or risking the loss of their loved ones forever.

The world must confront the uncomfortable truth: the slave trade is alive and thriving in Libya. It thrives in the silence of nations, in the shadows of complicit systems, and in the unchecked racism that dehumanizes Black lives. Naima’s story, as Yambio writes, is not an anomaly, it is the legacy of a history that refuses to end.

Justice will not come from waiting. As Yambio insists: “Justice must be more than a word spoken in comfortable rooms; it must be action that breaks chains and builds bridges.”

Naima’s survival, and that of countless others like her, depends on whether the world chooses to act or continues to turn its back on the horrors ongoing horrors in Libya.

Alarme Phone Sahara (APS) a cooperation project between associations, groups and individuals in the Sahel-Saharan region and Europe to defend lives and the freedom of movement. has called for an end to deportations from Libya to Niger Republic.

On the night of 3 to 4 January 2025, APS said 613 Niger nationals, including minors, arrived in the desert town of Dirkou, having been deported from Libya. Most of the people concerned had previously been held in detention centres in Libya.

According to the APS team, the people who were deported come from the regions of Tillabéri, Tahoua, Maradi, Diffa, Niamey and Dosso. Among them were 63 minors, and 4 people arrived in a sick condition.

The people were arrested in various places in Libya, including Tripoli, Gatrone, Sabha and Misrata, in different locations such as mosques, on the street and in workplaces. According to the Alarme Phone Sahara team, all their belongings, including mobile phones and money, were confiscated by Libyan forces.

The Alarme Phone Sahara (APS) team provided assistance to deportees in cooperation with other organisations, such as the Red Cross, CIAUD (International Committee for Relief and Development) and the IOM. The teams distributed 10 bags of dates and a few food kits to alleviate the situation of people deported in painful conditions

Alarme Phone Sahara is calling for a stop of deportations from Libya, respect for the free movement and human rights of all people on the move, and an end to the European Union’s anti-migration deals with the Maghreb countries!