With all d calls from the Federal government quarters and different diplomatic efforts, rebel forces in Libya are still attacking and detaining Nigerians living in Libya.

Fresh reports have it that Libya’s rebel forces, the National Transitional Council is holding over 200 Nigerian citizens in various detentions across the country, over the suspicion that they are mercenaries supporting the former embattled leader, Muammar Ghadaffi.

Local media reports that Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, Olugbenga Ashiru on Sunday received distress calls from Nigerians who live in Libya, including their coordinator, Mr Daramola Siji.
Siji told the foreign ministry that non indigent Africans in Libya have been killed, raped and stripped of money and have taken refuge in camps.

“The truth is that Gaddafi had sympathy for black Africans", Siji said. "In fact, there is a city in Southern Libya called Suyima that is mostly populated by Nigerians, especially the Hausa. The city shares borders with Algeria and Niger. But due to Gaddafi’s sympathy for the blacks, the Libyan rebels consider the blacks as their enemies and decided to kill any black man they come across.”

Siji, who is from Emure-Ekiti, Nigeria, described his personal situation: "My family can't leave our house. We will certainly be shot. We're lacking everything; we don't even have food. This is caused by the the same National Transitional Council that the Nigerian government is backing in Libya."

In a reaction on Siji's call, Foreign Minister Ashiru said: “The Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria wishes to note with concern reports of incessant abuse of helpless civilians in Libya by some unscrupulous elements who continue to take undue advantage of the ongoing crisis in that country, particularly to carry out attacks on black migrant workers and other black Africans."

He added that "these extra-judicial killings certainly run contrary to Nigeria’s call for good governance by the National Transitional Council."

The killing of Nigerians in Libya was also condemned on Sunday by a member of Nigeria's House of Representatives, Mrs Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa. She called on the Federal Government to mount pressure on the Libyan rebels’ National Transitional Council to stop the on-going genocide against blacks in the country.

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Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it is providing aid and assistance to around 1,000 people in Sidi Bilal, 27 kms west of Tripoli, where rusty fishing boats have been turned into makeshift shelters.

According to the ICRC's Soaade Messoudi, the migrants have been living in impossible conditions since they left the Libyan capital.

"These people have been stigmatised, they are stranded here. They cannot go and leave the country but they don't want to stay here and it's very difficult for them to get into Tripoli in order to get some food or anything else. So, they are in a precarious situation, that's why we are here. We are now distributing hygienic kits and we are going to distribute food as well together with our colleagues from the Libyan Red Crescent," she said.

Sub-Saharan migrants have lived and worked in Libya for decades but many have suffered increasing abuse during the conflict, sometimes accused of being mercenaries fighting alongside pro-Gaddafi forces against rebels who toppled him two weeks ago.

Although hundreds of thousands have fled via Egypt and Tunisia, many are believed to be hiding in fear because of their irregular status or inability to leave Libya.

For those who have found refuge in Sidi Bilal, the ICRC has been providing basic supplies, and its explosives experts have disposed of thousands of mines from the area in a bid to make it safe.

"This community consists of around 1,000 people from Africa. There are several nationalities here but they are mainly Nigerians, who fled the conflict in Tripoli. Because they are black they are stigmatised because of the dynamic that now exists in Libya. We helped these people firstly by decontaminating and clearing the area where they are living, which is behind us, of dangerous explosives materials.

“At the same time, we have asked the local authorities to intervene to improve security. We have also contributed non-food items as well as distributing hygiene products and we have restored the water system to provide water to the camp," said ICRC delegate Brigitte Meng Comninos.

The ICRC says food supplies will be delivered to the migrant workers in the coming days by the Libyan Red Crescent.

But even with their basic needs met, the United Nations says it has received consistent reports of migrants being subject to arbitrary detention and harassment.