Ethiopia says 10 nationals repatriated from Libya

ADDIS ABABA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian government said on Wednesday that ten of its nationals were repatriated from Libya.

In a press statement, the Office of the Ethiopia Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), said the Ethiopians arrived in Addis Ababa from Libya with the help of the Ethiopian Embassy in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

The Ministry further said it has been able to repatriate in recent weeks 45 other Ethiopian nationals from the Libyan cities of Benghazi and Tripoli.

The exact number of Ethiopians stranded in Libya is yet to be identified by the Ethiopian government.

The civil war in Libya that has engulfed the North African nation ever since the demise of longtime leader Muammer Gadhafi in 2011 has made it a haven for terrorists and criminals.

Stories of African migrants being sold to slavery in Libya has been harrowing to Ethiopians who still remember the execution of about two dozen Ethiopian migrants by terrorists in April 2015 in Libya.

It is estimated thousands of Ethiopians have in recent years used Libya as a transit point for going to European countries. Enditem