Five Nigerian women are discovered to be among the 35 women
captured by the Islamic state fighters in Sirte, Libya. ISIS turned the women
they captured into sex slaves for months.
The 5 Nigerians, 2 children and 28 Eritreans were rescued
by Libyan forces last December but made to face detention in a Misrata prison.
After the women were rescued from Sirte, they were investigated for possible ties to the group and held for several months in a Misrata prison but have now been released by Libyan authorities.
Then in mid-February, the Libyan attorney-general’s
office announced that it had cleared the women of any wrongdoing, but their
release was delayed for several more weeks, with no explanation given.
The group reportedly escaped from Sirte, a former Islamic
State stronghold in central Libya, when forces from the nearby city of Misrata
battled to oust the militants late last year.
Some of the women were said to have been on their way to
Europe when the Islamic State fighters kidnapped and held them as sex slaves, Reuters reports.
Fortunately on Wednesday, they were all released
and received by staff from the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) and the Libyan
Red Crescent, before being taken to a shelter for medical check ups.
One 14-year-old Eritrean girl said: “I’m very happy, I can’t
describe how I feel, but I am very happy, I can start a new life and see my
family again,” she told Reuters before leaving the prison with the rest
of the group on a Red Crescent bus.
A UNHCR official said the entire group had scabies, but
otherwise appeared to be in reasonable physical condition. The agency says it
expects to resettle the Eritreans as refugees.
Samer Haddadin, head of the UNHCR’s Libya mission said: “We
will send them to a safe house where they can be treated if they need medical
treatment, and receive assistance from us, and be protected”. “At the same time
we will be processing them for refugee status determination … and we are doing
this to make sure we can find a resettlement country for those who meet the
resettlement criteria.”
The Nigerians, five women and two children, will be able to
apply for asylum or be offered to be repatriated.
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