Libya, End of the Race for “Bija”. He Was the Number One Human Trafficker –

The commander of the Libyan Naval Academy, Abdul Rahman Milad, nicknamed “Al-Bija” and best known for being the head of one of the most violent human trafficking networks, was killed by gunmen who riddled his car with bullets just outside the institute in Janzour, in the western part of Tripoli. The news, released on X by the Libya Observer newspaper, has not yet been officially confirmed, but Bidja and his cousin Osama al-Khuni, director of the official detention center in Zawiyah and involved in the management of other migrant prison camps, are at the center of an investigation in Italy for international human trafficking, torture and other crimes. The investigation, conducted by the Agrigento prosecutor’s office, according to an investigation by the daily newspaper Avvenire, has collected hundreds of testimonies and evidence that lead directly to the two members of the al-Nasr clan, the militia that, through the Kachlaf family, controls not only human trafficking but also the illegal sale of weapons and drugs.

During the investigations, links were discovered between Bidja and three torturers arrested in Sicily and sentenced to 20 years in prison each with a fast-track trial. Among the dozens of depositions collected by the Agrigento police, one dates back to 2019. The agents in Lampedusa had separately interrogated some migrants who had passed through Zawiyah, on the coast between Tripoli and the Tunisian border, and were rescued in July 2019 by the sailing boat “Alex”, from the Italian platform “Mediterranea”. All the survivors reported one detail: the person who decided who to take on the dinghies was “a Libyan man who was missing two phalanges on his right hand”. According to another migrant, the man was nicknamed “Bengi”, and “he was in charge of transferring the migrants to the beach; in the end, he was the one who decided who should embark; he was violent and armed; we were all afraid of him”.

Interpol alerts and UN Security Council sanctions are pending on Bija and al-Khuni. As the UN “Panel of Experts” later verified, despite Bija and his companions having been included in the UN, European Union, US and UK sanctions list since 2018, and an Interpol alert note is always active on them, they have further expanded their network to include armed entities operating in the areas of Warshafanah, Sabratah and Zuwarah. The clan has inserted itself into the institutional context, so much so that “the expanded network of Zawiyah now includes elements of the 55th Brigade, the command of the Stability Support Apparatus in Zawiyah, in particular its maritime units, and individual members of the Libyan Coast Guard. A chain, Avvenire writes, in constant expansion with the aim of “obtaining significant financial and other resources – we read further in the UN file – from human trafficking and smuggling activities”. The linchpin of the business system is the prisons for refugees: “The Zawiyah network continues to be centralized in the Al-Nasr migrant detention facility in Zawiyah, run by Osama Al-Kuni Ibrahim.”