More than 230 migrants reached Greece in small boats over the past two days, including a rare case of a crossing from north Africa to Greece’s southern mainland, authorities have said.
LIBYA
Amberin Zaman, Al-Monitor’s chief correspondent covering major stories on the Middle East and North Africa, joins Thanos Davelis to look into the unfolding crisis in Libya over the leadership of the country’s Central Bank that is fueling fears of renewed conflict, and break down whether this should be a cause for concern in the Mediterranean.
The interim government of Tripoli claims Greece is conducting illegal prospecting south of Crete in areas it says are under Libya’s jurisdiction.
Some 51 migrants were rescued 33 miles southwest of the Cretan island of Gavdos on Friday afternoon.
Banknotes stolen from the Central Bank of Libya in Benghazi in 2017 have turned up in Larissa, central Greece. The discovery was made a few days ago when a man tried to exchange €40,000 at a branch of the Bank of Greece.
Last September, just 30 asylum seekers made the 190-nautical-mile journey from Tobruk in Libya to the Greek island of Gavdos and Crete’s southern coast just above it; that number swelled to 397 in December and has passed 1,100 in the first couple of months of 2024.
Turkey’s growing influence in Libya is reportedly worrying Athens, especially as tensions between Ankara and Benghazi have eased.
Defence Minister Nikos Dendias participated on Thursday in a ceremony honoring the members of the Armed Forces who died in a road accident while on a humanitarian mission to Libya.
Climate change made the heavy rainfall that led to deadly floods in Libya up to 50 times more likely, scientists said on Tuesday. The powerful September 10 storm caused two dams to break, inundating Libya’s eastern city of Derna and killing thousands of people.
The Hellenic National Defence General Staff has released the names of the three members of the Armed Forces who were part of a Greek search-and-rescue team in Libya that was killed in a road accident on Sunday.
Two military nurses have been identified as being among the five members of a Greek search-and-rescue team that was involved in a serious car accident in Libya, en route from Benghazi to the flood-ravaged city of Derna on Sunday.
EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic expressed on Monday his condolences for the victims of the Greek rescue team who lost their lives while driving towards the flood-ravaged city of Derna, where they would join international humanitarian teams assisting in recovery efforts.
The head of Greece’s Armed Forces Konstantinos Floros visited members of the Greek humanitarian mission who were injured in a road accident in Libya that claimed the lives of five of its members.
Greek authorities were conducting DNA tests to determine the identities of the five members of a rescue team sent to Libya on Sunday who died in a road accident on their way to the flood-ravaged city of Derna.
It is still not clear how the road accident that killed five members of a Greek rescue team on their way to the flood-ravaged city of Derna, Libya, happened, government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said on Monday.
Greek Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Monday it was “doubly painful to mourn lives that were lost while saving lives” of others, after five members of a Greek rescue team sent to Libya to assist in the international rescuing efforts died in a road accident on Sunday.
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