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TARHUNA, Libya — "They spared no child, no woman, no old man," said Mohamed Amer, mourning those murdered during a reign of terror by six brothers who ruled a Libyan town with bloodshed.

"I am the father of the martyr Moaid, killed in cold blood by the criminal gang of Kaniyat," said Amer, a silver-haired father in his fifties.

The Kaniyat were a gang of six brothers who commanded a militia that traumatised the town of Tarhuna in war-ravaged Libya, systematically executing not only their opponents but slaughtering their entire families.

Those they did not kill they cowed into submission.

The brothers paraded through the town in shows of force — with a pair of leashed lions roaring at the crowd.

Libya has been ravaged by conflict since the fall and killing of veteran dictator Muammar Qadhafi in a NATO-backed 2011 revolt, and an array of armed groups and militia forces arose to fill the vacuum.

In Tarhuna, it was the Al Kani militia, also known as the Kaniyat, who took power in 2015.

Hundreds missing 

Now the brothers are gone, toppled from power last year, but their shadow still hangs over the town.

After their ousting, digging began to exhume the corpses of the people they butchered.

Multiple mass graves have been unearthed in the farming town some 80 kilometres  southeast of the capital Tripoli.

Some bodies were found blindfolded with their wrists tied.

Amer, like many of the dusty town's residents, prays for the latest bodies dug up.

Near a mosque, where a line of 10 ambulances are parked on an avenue of palm trees, posters on the wall bear the images of the "martyrs" of Tarhuna.

Some of the posters are of small children.

The last convoy took away 13 bodies.

"Most of Tarhuna's sons are in the soil," Amer said.

So far, 140 bodies have been exhumed in a slow process that began in June 2020 after the town was captured from the eastern Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar.

The Kaniyat had first supported the internationally-backed government based in Tripoli.

But when Haftar's forces used Tarhuna as a launch pad for an offensive against the capital in April 2019, the Kaniyat switched loyalties.

They chose the losing side.

"The truth has now come to light," Amer said. "We now ask that they be arrested and tried, otherwise there can be no reconciliation."

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says at least 338 people were abducted or reported missing during the five-year rule of the Kaniyat.

"Residents reported that the militia often abducted, detained, tortured, killed and disappeared people who opposed them or who were suspected of doing so," HRW said.

Human rights activist Issa Harouda, who himself lost family members at the militia's hands, said the Kani brothers recruited gunmen from Bedouin herders, wooing them to fight with guns and cash.

"They surrounded themselves with henchmen who they gave arms and money to, taking advantage of their poverty," he said.

'Wild animals' 

In the town square, several hundred people gathered recently, to watch the latest bodies exhumed, wrapped in shrouds and carried on stretchers.

"The Kaniyat ruled the city with an iron fist," said Milad Mohamed Abdelgader, an elderly man dressed in a black robe, who came in memory of two of his cousins who vanished when the brothers were in charge.

"No one had the right to speak... They had eyes everywhere."

Few of the bodies could be immediately identified, but forensic experts gathered what evidence they could, including DNA samples, before formal burials.

The crowd recited prayers for the dead, and then, after a long silence, a voice shouted through a megaphone to demand that the "Al Kani terrorist criminal gang" be tried.

"God will do them justice, sooner or later," Abdelgader said quietly, before bursting into tears, his index finger pointing to the heavens.

But the militia has evaded justice so far.

Two of the brothers have been killed, while the remaining four — including their leader Mohamed Al Kani — are on the run.

Many in Tarhuna claim they are hiding out in Benghazi to the east.

"No one has yet been held responsible," said HRW Researcher Hannan Salah.

Today, the luxury villas of the militia commanders lie in ruins.

Down a rough track, the lavish marble villas of the Al Kani brothers have been smashed by artillery shells, and daubed with graffiti remembering the "martyrs" they massacred.

"The Kaniyat seized two factories and several businesses, and they forced wealthy families out to grab their fortune," said one resident, dressed in military uniform.

"They were strutting about in their pick-up with their wild animals and they terrorised the city. All this, for what? For the money."

ZAWIYAH, Libya — Authorities in western Libya released 120 fighters from a rival eastern force on Wednesday, the latest move towards reconciliation in a UN-backed peace process aimed at ending years of violence.

The men were fighting for the 107th Brigade under the command of eastern military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who in April 2019 launched an offensive to seize Tripoli from a unity government.

The fighters had been captured near the western city of Zawiya that same month.

On Wednesday, dressed in loose white outfits and matching skullcaps, they were released following a ceremony in Zawiya, 45 kilometres east of Tripoli.

The ceremony took place at a sports ground in Zawiya under heavy security.

In a speech, Abdallah Al Lafi, vice-president of the country's new presidential council, welcomed the move and called for further reconciliation and rebuilding.

"We must not pass on hatred and bitterness to our children," he said.

After a recitation from the Koran and the singing of the national anthem, the prisoners were released and reunited with their families amid loud ululations.

Libya has been ravaged by bloodshed since the fall and killing of leader Muammer Qadhafi in a NATO-backed 2011 revolt.

An array of armed groups arose to fill the vacuum, and many coalesced around the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) or around Haftar, who backed an eastern administration.

The two camps, each supported by foreign powers, fought for more than a year before Haftar was forced to retreat.

In October they signed a truce, setting in motion a UN-led process that saw a new transitional government installed in February.

The deal had also led to the release of several dozen prisoners by January.

The new executive is charged with organising national elections set for December 2021.

But while the advances in the peace process have been widely praised, the transitional administration faces a complex task — not least due to the presence of foreign forces who backed the rival camps and have remained on Libyan soil.

Haftar received military support from the UAE and the shadowy Wagner Group, close to the Kremlin, while his rivals were backed by Turkey, whose drones were seen as critical in repelling Haftar’s forces last year.

According to the UN, some 20,000 mercenaries and foreign fighters were still in Libya in early December. A January 23 deadline for their withdrawal passed without any sign of them leaving.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on the Security Council on Wednesday to give the world body’s UN mission UNSMIL “a clear but flexible mandate, supported by additional resources” to support its ceasefire monitors, who would work alongside Libyan observers from the rival camps.

Both Libyan camps have called for a monitoring mechanism led by Libyans themselves, and Guterres insisted in a December report that “the implementation of the ceasefire agreement must be Libyan-led and Libyan-owned”.

But diplomats have voiced incredulity after the UN’s Libya envoy said last week that as few as five UN officials may be deployed to monitor the truce.

With some 20,000 foreign fighters still in the country, such a mission is a “pretty big task and probably takes more than a few UN ceasefire monitors”, one ambassador to the UN told AFP, asking not to be named.

There also remains the difficult question of crimes committed during the war.

Human Rights Watch has said more than 300 people had been abducted or reported missing in Tarhuna, used by Haftar’s forces as a major staging point for his offensive on Tripoli.

Mass graves were later discovered in the town which was run by the local Al Kani militia.

The rights group’s Libya researcher Hanan Salah tweeted on Wednesday that “No one has been held to account yet for the crimes of abduction, disappearance, torture and unlawful killing of scores of people” in Tarhuna.

WASHINGTON — Sudan has paid $335 million as agreed to compensate victims of past anti-US attacks as part of a deal that removed the struggling country from the US terror blacklist, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.

The transitional, civilian-backed government provided the funds for survivors and victims' families from attacks including the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by Al Qaeda, which was backed by Sudan's then dictator.

"We hope this aids them in finding some resolution for the terrible tragedies that occurred," Blinken said in a statement.

“With this challenging process behind us, US-Sudan relations can start a new chapter,” he said.

“We look forward to expanding our bilateral relationship and to continuing our support for the efforts of the civilian-led transitional government to deliver freedom, peace and justice to the Sudanese people.”

Sudan agreed to the package last year as it desperately sought to exit the US blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation that severely hindered investment in a country rattled by unrest over tough economic conditions.

Former president Donald Trump agreed last year to remove Sudan but only after securing an agreement by Sudan to recognise US ally Israel.

The delisting enjoyed wide agreement in Washington although some said it was unfair by focusing on US victims and not providing the same compensation to Africans who made up the bulk of the dead in the 1998 bombings.

The compensation will also cover the 2000 attack by Al Qaeda on the USS Cole off Yemen’s coast and the killing of US development worker John Granville in Khartoum in 2008.

Some lawmakers had also pushed for Sudan to pay compensation to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Strongman Omar al-Bashir, who welcomed Al Qaeda as part of an Islamist turn in the 1990s, was toppled in April 2019 after mounting street protests.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has vowed to turn a page by ending conflicts and bringing more economic opportunities, and put an early priority on reconciling with the United States.

Last week the United States said it had assisted Sudan with more than $1 billion in credit to clear arrears, making the country again eligible for support from the World Bank and IMF.

BEIRUT — Scattering spinach and hot chilli onto fluffy flatbread in Lebanon's capital, 54-year-old Abu Shadi bemoans better times before the economic crisis when all Lebanese could afford his simple meals.

The veteran baker is famed for his take on Lebanon's manousheh, a circle of freshly baked dough sprinkled with anything from thyme to meat, then folded in half and rolled in paper to go.

But Lebanon's worse financial crunch in decades has sent prices soaring, and Abu Shadi says many of his customers of three decades can no longer afford even this modest pastry.

"Since I started working at this oven in 1987, it's been nothing but goodness and blessings. But today, all that has gone," he said.

On the phone, he warmly receives a stream of orders.

He jokes with a customer as he waits for his breakfast, and from inside his shop waves at an acquaintance as they drive by in their car.

Looking up from time to time from the flatbreads he heaps with filling, he greets the old and young as they walk by.

He hums loudly, only pausing to compliment an elderly lady on her blonde hairstyle.

But nowadays, Abu Shadi turns down the heat in his oven once he has baked enough manaeesh (plural form of manousheh) to save on gas.

Long gone are the days when he fired up the oven at 8:00am, and did not turn it off till 3:00pm.

'Rich and poor' 

"The manousheh is both a father and mother to the Lebanese people. It's food for the rich and the poor," he said.

"Sadly at the moment, the poor can no longer afford to eat it," he said.

Tens of thousands have lost their jobs or a huge part of their income in the financial crunch, which has caused the Lebanese currency to lose more than 85 per cent of its value.

A manousheh "used to cost between £1,000 to £1,500 ($0.66 to $1), but now it's £5,000."

The new price is less than $0.50 at the black market rate for a lucky few with access to dollars, but most Lebanese earn wages in the local currency — and see that as up to five times the normal price.

The baker says that for three decades, customers have streamed in at weekends, ordering up to seven or eight manaeesh to take away for a traditional family breakfast.

But over the past few months, those customers have stopped coming altogether.

"Manaeesh are now only for the well off," he said.

"Whoever earns £30,000 or £40,000 a day is not going to spend £5,000 on a thyme manousheh. They have other expenses."

But Abu Shadi has been forced to raise his prices to cover the increasing cost of supplies, from flour and cheese to the paper he wraps the manousheh in.

'Never seen 

anything like it' 

"We used to live a cushy life, but people's living situations have really slumped," he said.

"We've never seen anything like it."

But one customer, Mahmoud, says he will continue to buy the bread he has grown to love, "whatever the cost".

"Whoever is used to Abu Shadi's manaeesh cannot replace it," he said, between bites of one filled with cheese and meat.

Abu Shadi has been helped by the fact that his customers keep coming back.

But he says he has not been forced to close like other small bakers since he does the job on his own.

"After all this time and effort, I'm only still going because I work for myself," he said.

"The money others pay to their staff, I keep to live off."

"I have nothing but my hands and God."

ANKARA — Turkey's top court on Wednesday refused to hear an appeal by a leading pro-Kurdish lawmaker against his expulsion from parliament over terror charges linked to a social media post.

Parliament this month stripped Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) of his seat after he was convicted of "spreading terrorism propaganda" on social media.

The offending post, which could see him jailed for two-and-a-half years, featured an article in which outlawed Kurdish militants who have been waging a deadly decades-long insurgency called on the government to take a step toward peace.

Gergerlioglu has irritated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government by shining the light on human rights violations that go ignored by the mainstream Turkish media, including strip searches of women in detention.

The constitutional court on Wednesday said it did not have the competence to rule on Gergerlioglu's appeal, the official Anadolu news agency reported.

Gergerlioglu tweeted that he now intends to file an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Turkey's top court is also due to decide on Wednesday whether to accept an indictment to ban the HDP over its alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The Turkish government says the HDP — the third largest party in the parliament — is the political front for the PKK, which the party denies.

The PKK is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies, and has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.

A top prosecutor this month put an indictment before the constitutional court with an ultimate goal to dissolve the HDP and ban 687 party members from engaging in politics for five years.

The attempt to ban the party hit a legal snag on Tuesday when a special court rapporteur concluded that the prosecutor's case had "deficiencies" relating to the identities and roles of some of the defendants.

The court now has the option to either send back the indictment for further work or to accept it and allow the prosecutor to amend his file during the trial, Turkey's NTV television said.

BRUSSELS — International donors on Tuesday pushed to meet a United Nations goal of $10 billion in aid for Syria and refugees in neighbouring countries, as demands for assistance rise after a decade of conflict.

Germany led the way at a two-day video conference by vowing to contribute 1.74 billion euros ($2 billion), ahead of $600 million from the United States.

"The Syrian tragedy must not last another 10 years. Ending it begins by restoring hope. It begins with our commitments — here, today," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

The UN warns the need for aid has increased on the back of the coronavirus pandemic and a slump in the value of the Syrian pound.

That is despite the intensity of the fighting dropping in Syria after the Russia-backed forces of President Bashar al-Assad reconquered most of the country.

The UN says that over $10 billion is needed in 2021 — $4.2 billion for humanitarian relief inside Syria, and the rest for refugees sheltering in the region.

"For 10 years, Syrians have endured death, destruction, displacement and deprivation," United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a video message.

"And things are getting worse, not better. More than 13 million people need humanitarian assistance to survive this year. That's over 20 percent more than last year, and the majority of the population is now facing hunger."

The fifth Brussels Conference on Syria, co-hosted by the European Union and the UN, brings together more than 50 countries and 30 international organisations in the biggest annual drive for pledges to assist those hit by the war.

The total amount of money pledged is set to be announced at 1800 GMT on Tuesday.

Syria’s neighbours including Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq struggle to cope with the burden of housing most of the millions of refugees who have fled the conflict.

Overall the UN says that 24 million people need support in Syria and across the region — a rise of four million from last year.

Britain criticised 

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that donors had ended up giving some $8 billion in grants in 2020 for Syria and regional countries — more than was originally pledged at last year’s conference.

The EU and its 27 member states — which worry that failure to help refugees in the Middle East could see them come to Europe — provided the bulk 

of the funds.

The bloc says overall it has mobilised around $29 billion since 2011 to help deal with the fallout from the Syrian conflict.

Some donors, such as Britain, faced criticism for cutting back their pledges from last year — despite the rising demands from the UN.

London slashed its contribution by more than 30 per cent to some $280 million as the British government cuts aid spending across the board.

“This latest reduction in aid to Syria is completely out of touch with the reality facing Syrians,” said David Miliband, former British foreign minister and now president of the International Rescue Committee.

The war in Syria has killed more than 388,000 people and displaced millions since the regime’s brutal repression of anti-government protests a decade ago.

Efforts have stalled to find a lasting peace deal to end a conflict that has pitched world powers against each other and fuelled the rise of the Daesh.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday launched an impassioned plea at a virtual UN Security Council for key player Russia to reopen aid crossings to allow greater humanitarian access.

Regime ally Moscow last year wielded its veto to oppose the opening of more crossings into Syria on the grounds that they violate the Damascus government’s sovereignty.

While Russia has essentially declared Assad the victor of the war, the United States and its European allies are adamant that there must be accountability for crimes.

European countries insist they will not spend money on broader rebuilding in Syria until Assad commits to a genuine political process to resolve the conflict.

ISMAILIA, Egypt — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi pledged Tuesday investment to avoid any repetition of the past week's closure of the Suez Canal as he paid a celebratory visit to the reopened trade artery.

The promise came a day after the refloating of the giant container vessel MV Ever Given, which hit the eastern bank of the narrow shipping lane last Tuesday and became wedged diagonally across its span for nearly a week.

"We will acquire all the necessary equipment for the canal" to avoid similar incidents, Sisi said during a visit to Ismailia, home to the Suez Canal Authority.

He did not specify what hardware would be bought, but SCA chief Osama Rabie has cited the need for both dredgers and new tugboats in comments to media.

Egyptian authorities have presented the freeing of the megaship as a vindication of the country’s engineering and salvage capabilities.

Traffic on the canal, a conduit for over 10 percent of world trade, began moving again on Monday evening, after tailbacks totalling 425 ships built up to the north and south.

On Tuesday morning, maritime tracking sites showed ships with capacity of up to 200,000 tonnes — a similar size to the Ever Given — navigating the narrow waterway.

Widening ruled out 

But many more cargo ships were seen waiting at its two entrances, in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The SCA says it will take over three days for the tailbacks to clear.

Maritime data company Lloyd’s List said the blockage had held up an estimated $9.6 billion worth of cargo each day between Asia and Europe.

The near week-long blockage has left Egypt facing scrutiny over how to avoid another similar crisis.

But both Sisi and the SCA have been quick to rule out a widening of the southern section of the canal, where the blockage occurred.

“Economically, it would not be useful,” he said.

Egypt spent more than $8 billion on widening a segment and creating a second lane on a northerly stretch in 2014-15.

Professor Jean-Marie Miossec, a maritime transport expert at France’s Paul-Valery University in Montpellier, said it would “be prudent... to only authorise [passage] by small and medium sized ships at nightime”, restricting oil tankers and other very large ships to daylight hours.

The giant Panamanian-flagged vessel operated by Taiwanese Evergreen Marine Corporation was stranded after running aground on the east bank of the waterway in a sandstorm.

Helped by tugboats, it has been shifted out of the path of other ships, and was anchored late Monday ahead of an investigation.

“The owners and operators of the... ship and other interlocutors will be involved” in the probe, Angus Blair of the American University in Cairo, told AFP.

The clearance operation required over 10 tugs, as well as dredgers.

“Between 180 and 200 people worked tirelessly 24 hours a day” on site, a canal official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Picking up the tab 

Ahmed Abbas, a Suez Canal employee, shared live footage from the scene on his Facebook account as the ship was refloated, exclaiming: “Praise be to God, the vessel is finally out! Well done to the SCA boys!”

Up to “2,000 workers” provided “outside services”, the employee added.

“The determining factor is that we dug deeper under the bow of the ship and widened to form a pool of water below” at a depth of about 12 metres, he revealed.

Elsewhere, salvage teams dug up to 18 metres.

Egypt lost between $12 and $15 million in revenues for each day the waterway was closed, according to slightly revised SCA figures.

It is seeking to recover some of its losses, stretching also to damage to the canal generated by the intensive rescue efforts.

“Litigation is likely to ensue to determine legal responsibility for the Ever Given blocking the canal,” said Marcos Alvarez of credit ratings agency DBS Morning Star.

“Indications are that the responsible partners would include the owner of the ship, its operator, and the Suez Canal Authority, which requires local pilots to guide ships through the canal.”

The crisis forced shipping firms to choose between waiting or rerouting vessels around the southern tip of Africa, which adds 9,000 kilometres and more than a week of travel to the trip between Asia and Europe.