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We have lost the Christian presence in Libya, said Professor Mariz Tadros during a Christian persecution conference on Thursday at the National Press Club.

Religious pluralism as it existed [in Libya] is over, she added.

Before the 2011 revolution that resulted in the overthrow and execution of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, as many as 100,000 Christians, mainly members of the Coptic Church, resided in Libya,reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

As of 2013, before the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) appeared in the North African nation, a few thousand Christians remained, added AFP, citing church officials.

At one point, Libyas coastal city of Sirte, where Gaddafi was killed, was ISISs largest stronghold outside of its so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

ISIS jihadists targeted members of the Christian minority in Libya as it did in other countries.

In February 2015, the terrorist group decapitated 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians on a Libyan beach, prompting worldwide condemnation.

These beheadings accounted for a mere twenty-one of the 7,100 Christians whom Open Doors estimates died for their faith in 2015, points out a report released by the University of Notre Dames Under Caesars Sword project on global Christian communities during the conference Thursday.

The report, titled In Response to Persecution, assessed Libya to host a high level of Christian persecution.

Christians face violence at the hands of Muslim militants. Especially in Egypt and Libya, this violence has increased as a result of the Arab Uprisings of 2011, it notes adding:

While Christians generally enjoyed freedom from heavy discrimination and a decent level of liberty to worship and practice under the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, Christians security disappeared when this dictator fell and Libya was beset with lawlessness. Militias and tribal groups were empowered, including Muslim groups like Ansar al Shariah, al-Nusra, the Islamic State, and the Muslim Brotherhood. At their hands, Christians suffered assaults on churches, violence against clergy, abductions, and numerous other forms of violence.

Libya has been gripped by chaos since the fall of Gaddafi, providing fertile grounds for jihadists to flourish.

While the persecution report mentions that Christians still make up between 3 percent and 5 percent of the population and are mostly migrant workers from outside the country, the Open Doors USA organization estimates that less than one percent (20,000) of the Muslim-majority countrys 6.4 million people are Christians.

As anarchy took hold in Libya, many Copts and other Christians at first tried to avoid abductions while remain-ing in the country, often living like fugitives, notes the report released Thursday. Eventually, a mass exodus ensued, with more than 200,000 Christians leaving Libya between 2011 and 2015, it is estimated.

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Expert: 'We Have Lost the Christian Presence in Libya' - Breitbart - Breitbart News

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Libya's Liquidity Crunch and the Dinar's Demise: Psychological and Macroeconomic Dimensions of the current crisis - Libya Herald

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Trump Joins Criticism of Iran; Questions US Role in Libya Wall Street Journal (subscription) WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trump, adding to strong criticism of the Iran nuclear deal voiced by his administration, said on Thursday that Tehran is not living up to the spirit of the agreement. His comments, in a joint press conference with Italy's ...

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Trump Joins Criticism of Iran; Questions US Role in Libya - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

I was horrified when I read the International Organization for Migration (IOM) report last week on sub-Saharan Africans being sold and bought in open markets in Libyabut I was not surprised.

During a recent visit to Italy, I spoke with dozens of men and women from East and West Africa who recently arrived in Sicily from Libya. They recounted extreme acts of cruelty at the hands of human smugglers, members of the Libyan coastguard, state-run detention center workers and locals.

I was sold twice, a young man from Guinea told me on the tiny island of Lampedusa, just days after he arrived by boat from Libya. I was sold to an Arab man who forced me to work and told me to call my family so they would send money. He sold me to another Arab man who forced me to work for him, too. The young man was only able to leave once his family sent enough money to free him.

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Read more: African migrants smuggled into Libya are being sold at 'modern-day slave markets'

The slave trade affects women, too. A young woman from Nigeria told me: As a female, you cant walk alone in the street. Even if they dont shoot you, [if] youre black, theyll just take you and sell you. One man, also from Guinea, said that women are more expensive to buy than men.

Women also face shocking levels of sexual abuse. A United Nations official told me that of the migrants and asylum seekers in Libya, almost every woman has been sexually abused.

In this context, it is astounding that the European Unionis working hard to keep people off its shores, even if it means leaving them in Libya. As outlined in a declaration in Malta in February, EU heads of state have promised to train and equip the Libyan coastguard and are hoping to ensure [there are] adequate reception capacities and conditions in Libya for migrants.

With summer weather approachingbringing better conditions for crossing the Mediterraneanthe EU and its member states are working with a sense of urgency that is palpable.

Training the Libyan coastguard is a welcome move if it contributes to saving lives and treating those rescued with humanity and respect. But the question of what happens after they are rescued is key: People are currently taken to detention centers where they are held in inhuman conditions.

Describing such centers, asylum seekers and migrants told me they had been beaten and forced to ask their relatives for money, that sometimes those who could not pay were shot, and that they were hardly fed at all. In addition, the collusion between smugglers and people running some detention centres is no secret.

Absent from the EU plan is what happens to people who fled their homes because of violence or persecution. Many of those arriving in Italy via Libya are in this category, among them Eritreans, Somalis, Sudanese, and people fleeing other countries because it is unsafe for them, often because of their political activities or sexual orientation.

The EU is focused on increasing the number of people returning from Libya to their country of origin, but there does not seem to be any consideration for those who cannot do so safely.

Despite the ongoing chaos and violence in Libya there is an absencewith very few exceptionsof international staff, including those from the EU, the U.N., and humanitarian organizations on the ground. As such, the idea that the situation for migrants and asylum seekers will dramatically improve in the coming months is utterly unrealistic.

One Eritrean man told me that its better to die in the sea than to stay in Libya. Smugglers had chained him to the ground by the ankles for three days when he was unable to pay the money they demanded. It is little surprise that for people like him, risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean seems like the only option.

Izza Leghtas is Senior Advocate for Europe at Refugees International. Leghtas is the author of an upcoming report on the treatment of asylum seekers and migrants in Libya due out this May. Follow her on Twitter @IzzaLeghtas

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'It Is Better To Die Than Stay In Libya:' Libya's Slave Markets Remind Us of Flaws in EU Migration Plans - Newsweek

Russias Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Bogdanov AFP 2017/ ABBAS MOMANI

The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, met on Tuesday with a delegation of officials from Libyas Misurata city in Moscow.

The Russian side stressed the necessity to establish inclusive intra-Libyan dialogue with involvement of representatives of main political forces, tribal groups and the countrys regions in order to create nationwide power structures, including army and police that are ready to ensure security and order and to resist terrorist threats in an effective way, according to Sputnik.

Sputnik added that in this context, Moscow has reaffirmed its readiness to work closely with all the Libyan sides on behalf of the solutions [to the conflict] that would be mutually acceptable, the statement said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry added that the solutions should lay the groundwork for Libyas unity and further sustainable development as a sovereign and independent state, friendly to Russia, Sputnik indicated.

Libyas control has been split into three governments, two in the west and one in the east and they are all fighting for control for power, including the UN-backed Government of National Accord.

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Russia ready to broker solution to Libya's political conflict, Bogdanov says. - Libyan Express