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KHARTOUM Qamr al-Dawla Abdullah had never met his niece and nephew who grew up in Libya, where their father Yehia was killed fighting alongside Islamic State, but he stood tearfully at Khartoum's airport on Tuesday waiting to pick them up.

The Sudanese children were two of eight returning from Libya, where their parents had joined Islamic State in the coastal city of Sirte. The youngest of the children has not turned 1 yet, and the eldest is only 9 years old.

After being placed in a corrective institution in Libya, the children were being sent to live with family members in their native Sudan, said Moataz Abbas, a Sudanese community leader in the Libyan city of Misrata.

"The mothers are detained and the fathers are dead or missing... Six children are being picked up by their families, but there are two whose families we have been unable to locate," Brigadier General Al-Tigany Ibrahim told reporters at Khartoum airport.

Islamic State captured Sirte in early 2015, turning it into its most important base outside its heartland in Syria and Iraq, and attracting large numbers of foreign fighters to the city, many of them Sudanese.

The group imposed its hardline rule on residents and extended its control across some 155 miles (250 km) of Libya's Mediterranean coastline.

"It is painful for the sun to rise and for you to not find your daughters or grandchildren at home and to not know where they went or why. We are simple people ... our daughters had never even left Sudan," Hassan Sughayroon, grandfather of four of the rescued children, told Reuters.

Two of Sughayroon's daughters fled the country last year. He only learned of their whereabouts when Sudan's intelligence agency called him four months ago.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Eric Knecht)

BRUSSELS Belgian troops shot a suspected "terrorist" bomber in Brussels Central Station on Tuesday but there were no other casualties and the situation was brought under control after people were evacuated, officials said.

WASHINGTON The U.S. State Department bluntly questioned on Tuesday the motives of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for their boycott of Doha, saying it was "mystified" the Gulf states had not released their grievances over Qatar.

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Children of Islamic State militants in Libya reunite with families in Khartoum - Reuters

Oil tumbled to the lowest level in nine months, pulling energy stocks down, amid growing concerns that OPEC-led output cuts are failing to ease a global supply glut.

Futures declined 2.2 percent in New York, entering a bear market for the first time since August, as investors focus on rising production from countries that are not part of OPECs deal.Libya is pumping the most crude in four years, and the amount of oil stored in tankers reached a 2017 high earlier this month. U.S. drillers have added oil rigs for 22 straight weeks. An industry report on a decline in American inventories didnt improve the mood.

We still have a lot of oil, Tariq Zahir, a New York-based commodity fund manager at Tyche Capital Advisors, said by telephone. Libya is coming on a little bit more than people expected. And the bottom line is that the glut thats here in the United States doesnt look to be slowing anytime soon, he said.

West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, dropped 21 percent from a close of $54.45 on Feb. 23, entering a bear market, which kicks in when settlement prices fall at least 20 percent from their peak.

Oil has stayed below $45 a barrel since last week as supplies in the U.S. remain plentiful and the oil rig count rises to the highest since April 2015. WTI for July delivery, which expires Tuesday, fell 97 cents to settle at $43.23, the lowest since mid-September. Total volume traded was about 35 percent above the 100-day average.

Futures were little changed from the settlement after the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute was said to report that U.S. crude stockpiles fell by 2.72 million barrels last week, while gasoline supplies rose by 346,000 barrels. The more-active August WTI contract traded at $43.42 a barrel at 4:42 p.m. after settling at $43.51.

Brent for August settlement slipped 89 cents to settle at $46.02 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $2.51 to August WTI.

People are getting a little fatigued waiting for the production cuts to have effect, Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts, said by telephone. Traders are very nervous about the near-term prospects.

The S&P 500 Energy Index declined as much as 2.3 percent, with Hess Corp. slumping as much as 6.8 percent. Exxon Mobil Corp. slipped as much as 1.6 percent, while Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc both fell more than 2 percent.

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Another factor feeding trader angst is a rise in the number of drilled-but-uncompleted wells in U.S. oilfields. At the end of May, there were5,946 wells in this category, the most in at least three years, according to estimates by the EIA. In the last month alone, explorers drilled 125 more wells in the Permian Basin than they would open, meaning production could surge when they turn on the spigots.

U.S. crude inventories probably shrank by 1.2 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey before Energy Information Administration data Wednesday. Yet,American production climbed to 9.33 million barrels a day through June 9, near the highest since August 2015. Gasoline supplies probably rose 500,000 barrels last week, the survey showed.

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Oil Slips to Nine-Month Low on Signs Global Glut Will Persist - Bloomberg

Still wracked by conflict six years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is split between two rival governments. In the west is Fayez al-Sarrajs Government of National Accord, based in Tripoli, and in the east a regional government under the control of General Khalifa Haftar, based in Tobruk. Sarraj enjoys the backing of the UN, while Haftar is supported by the Libyan National Army, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Russia, too, is generally regarded as an unconditional Haftar ally but its not quite that simple.

General Haftar has been described as Putins man in Libya, and his visits to Russia, where he met Putins foreign and defence ministers, have bolstered that impression. But rather than simply backing one side, Russia appears to be facilitating talks between both political factions, or at least to be supporting others in their efforts to do so. The Kremlin even hosted Sarraj on an official visit to Moscow in March 2017.

But the reasons for Russias involvement in Libya have less to do with the dialogue between Libyas governments than with Russias very distinctive geopolitical motives.

Libyas political map is marked by large areas beyond government control some are under the sway of local armed groups, while others are partially filled by violent radical Islamist groups. The so-called Islamic State (IS) maintains cells in the coastal town of Sabratha, and controls swaths of territory south-east of Tripoli.

This means that by engaging the political leadership in the coastal cities, the Kremlin can claim to be fighting IS and its affiliates (which have attacked Russian targets before). Here, Moscow is presenting itself as part of a broader international effort to fight terrorism.

Then there are the commercial interests of Russian oil and gas companies and weapons manufacturers. Russia has cited losses of US$4 billion in Libyan arms contracts since Gaddafi was toppled in 2011, and it is keen to start making money in the country again. The Russian oil company Rosneft signed a crude oil purchasing agreement with Libyas National Oil Corporation (NOC) in February 2017. And the fact that Haftar controls the bulk of Libyas oil resources raises the possibility of lucrative contracts with a future national government provided Haftar wields substantial influence.

Russia has been a vocal critic of UN efforts in Libya, its complaints mainly relate to questions of power-sharing and military command structures. Moscow criticised the UN-brokered Libyan Political Agreement of December 2015 and voiced its dissatisfaction with Martin Kobler, the head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, for favouring the Tripoli government, ignoring Haftar, and thereby stalling the reconciliation process.

But perhaps above all, Russias approach to Libya has to be seen as a direct reaction to the mechanisms of Gaddafis ouster in 2011.

At the centre of things is United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which was passed in March 2011 to authorise a no-fly zone over Libya. In the Security Council, the Russian government abstained, passing up the opportunity to unilaterally veto it.

The Kremlin has come to regret this. As it read the resolution, the mandate was written exclusively for the purposes of civilian protection, but was used by Western powers as a pretext to help remove Gaddafi from power. As the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, sourly observed: By distorting the mandate obtained from the UN Security Council to secure a no-fly zone, NATO simply interfered in the war under the flag of protecting the civilian population.

In Russias view, the resolution and its aftermath set a nefarious precedent for externally enforced regime change via the back door. Russia vowed that the same thing would not happen again in Syria, and duly vetoed eight draft Security Council resolutions condemning Assads Syrian government.

Still, Russias desire to stamp its imprint on Libyas future rather than bowing to foreign policy decisions made elsewhere doesnt mean its preparing a military intervention. For all the US medias alarm at an alleged Russian build-up in western Egypt, close to the Libyan border, Russia knows its military interventions are only useful insofar as they can be translated into political leverage.

In Syria, for example, the strengthening of Assads control over previously rebel-held areas, aided by Russian air sorties, created the conditions for the start of a peace process, as Putin noted as he ordered a retreat of Russian forces in March 2016. This peace process, to be sure, was meant to be led by Russia, as the ongoing peace talks in Kazakhstan have shown.

It seems highly unlikely that Russia will offer comparable military support for either faction in Libya, as Moscows diplomatic initiatives towards both Libyan governments have made clear. Any deliveries of Russian arms to either side are prohibited by a UN weapons embargo, as Russias ambassador to Libya has himself stressed.

If Libyas two governments reach some kind of settlement thanks to Russias involvement, the Kremlins lost billions in contracts might return. But perhaps more importantly, Russias role in Libya and Syria since 2011 has made it a key actor in international security at large. So just as Libyas political future hinges to no small extent on Russian foreign policy, Moscow has a great deal invested in that future as well.

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Russia has a serious stake in Libya's uncertain future - The Conversation UK

A Nigerian human trafficker known as Rambo has been arrested in Italy on charges of torturing and killing migrants held captive in Libya, Italian police said Tuesday.

The suspect named John Ogais, 25, was traced to a reception centre in Calabria in southern Italy and clapped in cuffs on charges of belonging to a transnational smuggling ring, specialising in human trafficking, murder and rape.

Detectives in Agrigento in Sicily have pulled together witness testimony from migrants who accuse Ogais of torturing people held captive in a makeshift prison, with at least two men reportedly dying at his hands.

Many of those rescued from flimsy dinghies in the Mediterranean as they try to make the perilous trip to Europe bear torture scars and tell rescuers they had no choice but to flee for their lives from the crisis-hit African country.

While I was inside that ghetto, where it was impossible to escape, I heard that a man who called himself Rambo had killed a migrant, one of the witnesses said according to the police statement. My cousin and others tried to escape but they were caught and tortured nearly to death.

Another said: Once I saw Rambo the Nigerian kill a migrant he had gagged and tortured for a long time.

A third witness said he saw Rambo beat an underage boy and a man to death.

Extortion, murder

Ogais was found staying at a reception centre in Isola di Capo Rizzuto, one of the largest such centres in Italy, and the scene of mass arrests last month over a mafia scandal which capitalised on asylum seekers.

Libya has long been a stepping stone for migrants seeking a better life in Europe and people smugglers have stepped up their lucrative business in the chaos which has engulfed the country since its 2011 revolution.

People rescued at sea have described harrowing ransom situations in which captors lock up migrants and demand their families send money to buy their freedom. Those who fail to comply are executed.

Reports have also emerged of ruthless traffickers burying people alive on the beaches of Libya if they refuse to board unseaworthy dinghies and overcrowded boats.

Despite the dangers, many of those arriving in Libya fleeing conflict or poverty find it almost impossible to get out again, if not by sea.

According to the UNs International Organization for Migration, there are between 700,000 and one million people in Libya awaiting their chance to cross.

Over 77,000 people have tried to cross the Mediterranean to Europe since the beginning of the year, the UNs refugee agency said Tuesday, while close to 2,000 people have died trying.

AFP

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Italy arrests Nigeria's 'Rambo' for torturing, killing migrants in Libya - The Punch

A once-inhabitated apartment block, ridden with bullet holes, stands abandoned in Tawergha on February 21, 2013.

(Geneva) The Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) has ratified an agreement that allows for the return of the displaced population of the city of Tawergha and should implement it swiftly, Human Rights Watch said today. Some Tawerghan families intend to commence the effort to return home starting on June 22, according to activists involved in the efforts.

In 2011, militias mostly from the coastal city of Misrata ransacked Tawergha, demolishing and burning many buildings in that city, which is situated 50 kilometers south of Misrata. They have since prevented the return of the citys population, which fled en masse before their arrival. The displacement came in apparent retaliation for the support Tawerghans gave to then-leader Muammar Gaddafi during the 2011 conflict, and for crimes they allegedly committed in Misrata.

Tawerghans have been scattered for six years, far from home and often living in abject conditions, said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. Now that Libyas Government of National Accord has finally confirmed an agreement between the factions, it should waste no time to make concrete arrangements for the people of Tawergha to return home and resume their lives safely.

On June 19, the Presidential Council of the GNA announced that it had ratified a United Nations-brokered agreement between representatives of the towns of Misrata and Tawergha on settling their conflict and allowing for the return of Tawerghans to their homes. Mohamed Ishtewa, the mayor of Misrata said that further discussions would be held in coming days with our brothers in Tawergha during which the final arrangements will be made before their return to their city.

In 2016, UNSMIL helped launch a reconciliation process between the people of Tawergha and Misrata with the aim of ending the displacement and compensating victims. The two sides signed an agreement on August 31, which stipulated as a main condition for the return home of Tawerghans the establishment of a fund by the UN-backed GNA to compensate victims of the 2011 uprising.

In April 2017, representatives of Misrata requested modifications to substantially increase the payments to seemingly benefit mostly Misratan victims. A second demand, to prevent compensation for any pro-Gaddafi fighters or sympathizers, would mostly affect Tawerghans.

The agreement includes a sole provision on justice: The Libyan State shall take all necessary legal action to prosecute those accused of crimes.

Libyan courts have yet to establish a measure of accountability. They have prosecuted only crimes attributed to Tawerghans, convicting them mostly for killings and unlawful possession of weapons, handing out prison and even death sentences. No Libyan court has yet prosecuted anyone for the forced displacement of Tawerghans, or for acts committed by militias, mostly from Misrata, against Tawerghans, including long-term arbitrary detention, torture, and enforced disappearance.

About 40,000 people from Tawergha live displaced around Libya, many in makeshift housing, camps or schools, prevented by civil and military authorities in Misrata from accessing their homes and lands.

Factions in Misrata, including the civilian administration and armed groups allied with it, control the area between Misrata and Tawergha, and have been physically preventing Tawerghans from returning to their hometown, insisting that the GNA and local Misrata authorities first approve a comprehensive compensation package for those killed, detained, harmed, or missing during the 2011 uprising.

In the aftermath of the 2011 uprising militias, mostly from Misrata, who had displaced Tawerghans then arbitrarily detained, tortured, disappeared, and harassed them with impunity. Although about 350 detainees have been freed since 2016, about 160 remain detained, some without charge, and 300 others are missing, according to Mohamed Radwan, the head of the Tawerghan association for families of missing and detained.

Miftah Almabrouk, who represents families of detainees from Tawergha held in prisons in Misrata and communicates with the prison authorities on behalf of the families, met with Human Rights Watch in Tripoli. He said that only some of the remaining 160 detainees from Tawergha have been convicted by civil and military courts in Misrata, while many remained in precharge detention. Human Rights Watch documented serious due-process violations of detainees held in Misrata, including men from Tawergha.

Although there had been fewer attacks on Tawerghans living in camps for displaced people in Tripoli in recent years, their situation is precarious. Militias guarding the Janzour camp for displaced Tawerghans in Tripoli fired shots on May 31 after disagreements with residents, although there were no injuries reported. On May 26, clashes between militias injured one resident of al-Fallah II camp in Tripoli, according to the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).

The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement provide that displacement of people needs to be limited in time and should not last longer than required by the circumstances. International law further stipulates that civilians who were forcibly displaced from their homes during a conflict should be allowed to return home as soon as possible without conditions.

In June 2013, residents attempted to return to Tawergha without an agreement with Misrata groups. Local and international actors, including UNSMIL, cautioned against it after armed groups in Misrata issued threats against Tawerghans planning to return. Authorities in the eastern city of Ajdabiya turned back a convoy of Tawerghans trying to make the journey from Benghazi.

Certain abuses committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population, including torture, arbitrary detention, and forced displacement, may constitute crimes against humanity. The UN International Commission of Inquiry on Libya concluded in its March 2012 report that Misrata militias had committed crimes against humanity against Tawerghans and that the deliberate destruction of Tawergha has been done to render it uninhabitable.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Libya since February 15, 2011. The prosecutor of the ICC has not started an investigation nor announced the intent to investigate crimes against Tawerghans.

While the priority is to end the six-year-old collective punishment of people from Tawergha, the victims from both sides should also see justice for the crimes they have suffered. Goldstein said.

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Libya: Ensure Safe Return of Displaced Tawerghans - Human Rights Watch