Press review: the kidnapping of Coptic Christians in Libya

On January 4, 2015, the Libyan Ambassador to Egypt reported that he had not yet begun coordinating an airlift to evacuate Coptic Christians from Libya, adding that the embassy was involved in intense and ongoing discussions with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to organize an effort to get them out of the country. The Ambassador’s statement came after 13 Coptic Egyptians were kidnapped from a poorer neighborhood in the city of Sirt. The Libyan Ambassador confirmed that the identity of the kidnappers was not yet known due to the difficulties of conducting operations in the lawless areas of Libya, where armed groups operate and exercise control.

Doctor Najīb Jibrā’īl, the director of the Egyptian Union for Human Rights also commented on the situation, noting that he sees recent events in Libya as part of a genocide being committed against Copts there. He cited the burning of two churches in Misrātā and Tripoli, as well as the killing of an Egyptian Coptic Family, as evidence of what he sees as a coordinated effort to target them. Jibrā’īl said that the Egyptian government must conduct an air evacuation of the Copts in Libya so as to protect them from armed groups operating in such lawless zones.

In an interview with the newspaper al-Muhīt, a former aide to the previous Egyptian foreign minister, Husayn Harīdī, said that the Egyptian government’s support for General Haftar in Libya is the motive for the targeting of Egyptian Copts in Libya by extremist groups. In a separate interview with al-Muhīt, the General Secretary for the Egyptian Union for Human Rights, ‘Izzat Ibrahīm, blamed the Egyptian Copts’ prominent role in the June 30 Revolution for their kidnapping in Libya, adding that extremist Islamist groups want to eradicate Christians from the entire Middle East.

The Libyan Ambassador to Egypt also claimed in a second interview with Middle East Online that the kidnapping of the Copts was meant to disrupt the diplomatic relationship between Egypt and Libya. Mīnā Thābit, a representative for an Egyptian rights organization, claimed that the Egyptian government’s decision to try to evacuate Egyptian Copts from Libya was made too late since they would now face challenges in leaving the country via overland routes that are controlled by armed Islamist groups. In its own comment, the Egyptian Centre for Human Rights condemned the violence targeting the Copts in Libya as oppositional to religious identity and diversity, adding that the government must take decisive steps to save their lives.