Femi Fani-Kayode, a onetime culture and aviation minister in Nigeria, claimed that a staggering 75 percent of migrants detained and kept by Libyan militias in North Africa are from his country.
The Cambridge-educated lawyer added that the victims have their "bodies mutilated” and are "roasted like suya [shish kebabs]."
He continued:
"Roasted alive! This is what Libyans do to sub-Saharan Africans who are looking for a transit point to Europe. They sell them into slavery and either murder, mutilate, torture or work them to death."
WARNING: The following image may offend sensibilities.
If there were ever a reason or cause for us to go to war, the Libyans have provided it by enslaving our people and buying and selling them like Christmas turkeys and sallah goats. No human being deserves to be caged like an animal and roasted like suya meat. pic.twitter.com/MMQMr5MBFM
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) 30 ноября 2017 г.
Fani-Kayode, making comments on his Twitter account, also lamented the overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi saying the political vacuum that the country is currently experiencing is playing into the hands of criminal gangs thriving in contemporary Libya. He went on to accuse Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari for not speaking out against slavery and taking insufficient action against it.
The greatest calamity that befell Africa in the last 20 years was the murder of Muammar Ghadaffi in Libya.
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) 27 ноября 2017 г.
The second was the coming to power of Muhammadu Buhari in Nigeria.
The full implications of these 2 tragic, monumental and cataclysmic events are yet to be seen.
READ MORE: EU, African Leaders Unite to Combat Human Trafficking in Libya
Fani-Kayode’s comments came after a shocking CNN report revealed that migrants and refugees are being kept and then sold at public slave market places on the outskirts of Libya’s Tripoli for as little as £300 ($400). One video, its authenticity verified by CNN reporters, showed the sale of "big strong boys for farm work," with the auctioneer shouting out prices.
Earlier, in April, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned migrants were being sold at public slave markets in the country, with at least 20,000 of them held in dire conditions by criminal gangs in detention centers around Libya.
Thousands from sub-Saharan Africa keep pouring in to Libya, hoping to cross the Mediterranean to find themselves in Europe. However, as the EU is financing and training Libyan coastguards to curb the flow, many have to stop their journey in Libya, ending up in detention centers or, even worse, slave markets, the report by IOM suggested.
