The case of twenty-year old Naima Jamal, which spread on social media has raised awareness about the Black slave trade in Libya. Naima Jamal’s case which has been widely reported in the Italian press involves a woman who has been kidnapped into slavery in Kufra, Libya.
Naima Jamal is one of the many thousands of African immigrants who cross into Libya illegally in their attempt to reach Europe. Many of these immigrants are captured by Libyan slave-traders who are sold for as cheap as $300. According to extensive research by Mirjam van Reisen, up to 200,000 Africans were enslaved in Libya from 2017 to 2021 with the practice still ongoing. Black Africans are particularly targeted in this massive slavery and human trafficking trade in Libya.
The captors of Naima Jamal have captured a video of them beating and torturing her with her hands tied and hanging with a chain from the ceiling. They sent the video to her family demanding a ransom of up to $6,000 for her release.
Kufra, in the south of Libya bordering Chad, Sudan and Egypt, is an area controlled by the rump dictator of Benghazi, Khalifa Haftar. It is also an area where Russian military forces are present.
Newsroom
Leave a Reply