Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

US and NATO-supported Libyan "Rebels" Continue Persecution of Blacks in Libya
The Editors
07 Mar 2012
🖨️ Print Article

Video By RT

These are the so-called rebels and freedom fighters in Libya backed by the Obama administration and its secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

March 03, 2012 "RT" -- A shocking video has appeared on the Internet showing Libyan rebels torturing a group of black Africans. People with their hands bound are shown being locked in a zoo-like cage and allegedly forced to eat the old Libyan flag.

­“Eat the flag, you dog. Patience you dog, patience. God is Great,” screams a voice off-camera in the video uploaded to YouTube last week, which also made its way onto LiveLeak.com.

The torturers are also shown making the group of captive black Africans stand up with pieces of green cloth still in their mouths and apparently forcing them start jumping.  

A number of people are shown standing outside the cage watching the atrocity.  

After Muammar Gaddafi was killed, hundreds of migrant workers from neighboring states were imprisoned by fighters allied to the new interim authorities.
 

They accuse the black Africans of having been mercenaries for the late ruler.  

In the course of the fighting to topple Gaddafi last year, sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees “became targets of stigma, discrimination and violence,” the human rights group Amnesty International said last month.

“At the beginning of the crisis, there was vastly exaggerated propaganda for which the highest level of the National Transitional Council should take some responsibility because they largely contributed to that unfounded propaganda,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty’s senior crisis response advisor.
Some of the black migrants managed to flee into neighboring Mali and Niger, but more than 5,000 were detained. They face mass execution, beatings, and revenge killings, according to an Al Jazeera report published back in September.

Before the Libyan uprising broke out, the country hosted about a million black African workers, many of them employed in domestic work, construction, trash collection and other low-wage jobs.

Human Rights Investigations (HRI) suspect Libyan rebels of ethnic cleansing of the black population of the country, particularly in the city of Tawergha.

Libya

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
US Seeks to Turn Eritrea Into “a Bulwark Against Iranian Influence”
29 April 2026
As the militarization of the Red Sea escalates, the US tries to enlist Eritrea in exchange for sanctions relief.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Cuba, Venezuela and Regime Change
18 March 2026
Regime change is possible but not inevitable.
Essam Elkorghli
On the Assassination of Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi: Another Tale of Imperialist Treason
11 February 2026
The son of President Muammar Qaddaffi, Saif Qaddafi, has been assassinated by local forces, some of whom contributed to the destruction of a fl
Libyan "rebels
Essam Elkorghli
The de-Africanization and re-Europeanization of Libya: The Political Economy of NATO’s Legacy in Libya
13 March 2024
Anti-Black racism in Libya is stoked by the west to justify intervention and maintain dominance over the nation.
Everyday Politics in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Essam Elkorghli
Reconciling with Libya’s History on the 13th Anniversary of NATO’s Regime Change: Everyday Politics in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (Matteo Capasso) - Book Review
21 February 2024
Essam Elkorghli reviews the book, Everyday Politics in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya by Matteo Capasso, which discusses the history and p
Why Barack Obama Can't Shut Up
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Why Barack Obama Can't Shut Up
20 September 2023
Barack Obama devastated millions of people all over the world and speaks of his actions as if they were committed by someone else.
Libya’s disastrous flooding… Causes and hope?
Essam Elkorghli
Libya’s disastrous flooding… Causes and hope?
20 September 2023
The U.S./NATO destruction of the Libyan state in 2011 was followed unilateral coercive measures, sanctions, which rendered that nation unable t
Libya’s Attempt to Normalize Relations with the Zionist Entity is a Multilayered Treason
Essam Elkorghli
Libya’s Attempt to Normalize Relations with the Zionist Entity is a Multilayered Treason
06 September 2023
There are Arab governments going along with the U.S. push to normalize relations with Israel.
World Refugee Day Marked by 108 Million Being Displaced
Abayomi Azikiwe
World Refugee Day Marked by 108 Million Being Displaced
28 June 2023
The recent drownings of 500 refugees in the Mediterranean call attention to the displacement of millions of people as a result of imperial
Centering Imperialism in Libya: Implications for the African Continent
Essam Elkorghli
Centering Imperialism in Libya: Implications for the African Continent
31 May 2023
Libya exemplifies the terrorism inflicted upon African nations by US/NATO imperialism.

More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist , Austin Cole
    The Black Alliance for Peace Calls for a Boycott of the World Cup
    17 Jun 2026
    The Black Alliance for Peace and other organizations have called for a boycott of the 2026 World Cup being held in the United States. Before any matches were played, the U.S. banned players, fans,…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Knicks and New York's Disappearing Black Communities
    17 Jun 2026
    It is true that the New York Knicks' journey to a championship brought disparate communities together, but gentrification remains the norm in the city that is the capital of capital. Black people are…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Reconstruction, Seventy-Five Years After, W. E. B. Du Bois, 1943
    17 Jun 2026
    “Without the help of the American Negro, the abolition movement would have been impossible.”
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    “Don’t Worry Be Happy”: The World Cup as an International Psy-Op
    17 Jun 2026
    FIFA uses the World Cup to present the United States as a legitimate nation, but the U.S. is a rogue state committing crimes against humanity. The call for a boycott is a call to decolonize football…
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    When the Revolution Comes
    17 Jun 2026
    Chris Smalls and his best friend, Derrick Palmer, led the first successful drive to unionize an Amazon warehouse. He believes that labor must decouple from the Democratic Party, as he explains in his…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us