Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has issued a statement where it announced it would suspend its medical care at two Libyan detention centres due to the unacceptable level of violence, and will not return until conditions improve.

MSF’s head of mission in Libya, Beatrice Lau, said the persistent pattern of violent incidents and serious harm to refugees and migrants, as well as the risk to the safety of their staff, has reached an unacceptable level, adding that it was not an easy decision to make.

MSF documented acts of violence committed by the guards at the Mabani ‘Collection and Return’ detention centre 10 days ago, witnessing guards indiscriminately beating people who attempted to leave their cells to be consulted by MSF doctors.

The previous night, the overcrowded detention centre erupted in mass violence as migrants, refugees and guards suffered multiple fractures, cuts and abrasions, including one unaccompanied child who was left unable to walk after suffering serious wounds to the ankles, according to their statement.

Increased interceptions at sea and forcible return of vulnerable people to Libya and into detention has caused severe overcrowding in detention centres and a deterioration of already desperate conditions inside.

The medical charity said that the rise in violence in 2021 goes hand-in-hand with the rise in the number of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers intercepted at sea by the EU-funded Libyan coast guard.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 14,000 people have been intercepted and forcibly returned to Libya since the beginning of 2021.

This exceeds the total number of forced returns for all of 2020–from 13 June to 19 June, nearly 1,600 people were picked up and returned.

Sudan and Egypt have concluded military talks in Khartoum with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for joint cooperation between the two countries.

Sudanese Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Mohamed Osman El Hussein, and Egyptian Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Mohamed Farid Hegazy, signed the MoU.

In a press release, El Hussein commended the remarkable development in relations between the two armies and thanked the Egyptian Armed Forces for their great support and cooperation.

His Egyptian counterpart asserted that relations between the countries are deep, indicating that the visit was a formal review of what had already been agreed upon.

Hegazy arrived at Khartoum airport on Thursday from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and resumed his trip immediately after signing the MoU.

The joint military cooperation between both countries comes in the wake of the unresolved Nile River row.

The AU has been sponsoring the stalled Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia since July last year.

Sudan and Egypt issued a joint statement on June 9 to express their concerns over unresolved issues regarding the GERD after a meeting between ministers of both countries.

This week, the European Union envoy to Ethiopia and Sudan, Beka Havistan, stressed the importance for Sudan, Ethiopia, and Egypt to reach an agreement, even if the agreement is transitional, on the issue of the GERD before Ethiopia starts the second filling in the current summer season.

A delegation from Egypt’s Public Prosecution Office has followed up on ongoing measures to ship 114 antiquities that had been looted and smuggled from the country to France.

Prosecutor-General Hamada el-Sawy arrived in Paris last week, along with Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Mostafa Waziri, for joint investigations to retrieve the looted artifacts in cooperation with French judicial authorities.

On Friday, Waziri revealed that the looted antiquities are due to return home on Sunday, after the successful joint investigations launched by Egypt’s Prosecution and French judicial bodies.

The investigations were aimed at stopping all attempts to sell the smuggled antiquities.

The artifacts, dating back to various eras of the Pharaonic history and Greek age, were smuggled out of Egypt and are not registered in the storehouses of the SCA.