Libyan security forces arrested around 4,000 migrants, including hundreds of women and children.

The people were rounded up in the city of Gargaresch in the west of the country and taken to detention camps in the capital Tripoli and the surrounding area, authorities said.

According to the prosecutor, the operation was directed against drug and arms trafficking, among other things.

The special envoy of the UN refugee agency for the central Mediterranean region, Vincent Cochetel, told the AP news agency, according to initial reports, there were one dead and 15 injured in the action.

Transitional Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah welcomed the operation via Twitter as an “operation to eradicate drug trafficking”. Dbeibah said it would not be allowed to wage a “war against the youth” which was “a drug war”.

However, they left it open whether people smugglers or drug smugglers were also arrested. The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Libya, Dax Roque, had previously reported the arrest of “at least 500 migrants”, including women and children. On Saturday it was said that the number had risen to 4,000.

In some cases, security forces used excessive force to evict people from their homes. The shelters of illegal immigrants were razed to the ground during the operation.

“We shouldn’t be surprised if people are scared and try to go by sea (Libya).” Tarik Lamlum, a worker with the Libyan human rights group Belaadi, said there had been human rights abuses, particularly in the way women and children were arrested.

Massive assault and abuse

Gargaresch is known as a contact point for migrants and refugees and is located around twelve kilometers west of Tripoli.

The town has seen several waves of arrests against migrants in recent years, but activists have described the most recent as the toughest crackdown to date.

The Libyan Ministry of the Interior published pictures on social media on Friday, apparently showing some of the arrested.

They sat in groups on a street with their hands tied behind their backs. A bird’s eye photo showed men lying face down on the floor at an intersection. Military vehicles and guards surrounded them.

First, the migrants were taken to a facility in Tripoli called a collection and return center, said the head of the center, policeman Nuri al-Grettli. Then they were distributed to detention centers in Tripoli and surrounding cities.

According to human rights activists, these prisons are subject to massive assault and abuse. Dax Roque expressed concern that such martyrdom threatened the migrants who have now been arrested.

“Torture, sexual violence and blackmail are widespread in Libyan detention centers,” said the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Libya.

Transit country for migrants

A Libyan government official said the authorities would deport “as many migrants as possible” to their home countries. Many have lived illegally in Libya for years.

Activist Lamlum said many of the arrested migrants were registered with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) as refugees or asylum seekers. The UNHCR did not comment at first.

For years, Libya has been a transit country for migrants from countries in Africa and the Middle East who fled war and poverty in their homeland and hope for a better life in Europe.

The country slipped into civil war and chaos as a result of a NATO-backed uprising, at the end of which the long-time autocrat Muammar al-Gaddafi was overthrown and killed in 2011.

Elections are scheduled for December 24th.

For the Fourth day today, Algiers the capital of Algeria has been on tension as Postal workers continue with a massive strike.

The management of Algeria Post announced that it was taking charge of the grievances of its employees. The Postal employees have deserted the counters.

No trade union or other collective of workers has claimed responsibility for this strike.

Employees are allegedly making certain demands such as the payment of bonuses, the 13th month bonus and compensation for weekend days worked, such as Saturdays and the few Fridays.

At the office of the Place du 1er-Mai, customers are received but the service does not follow; which created anarchy within.

Not admitting the unexpected, customers shouted their anger at employees who didn’t even flinch. “Are you on strike?” we ask a counter attendant who is not providing service.

“My shift is over,” she informs. And his replacement? She then evokes “a liquidity problem” before letting go: “We are on strike.”

In a statement made public yesterday, Algérie Poste announced the payment of the incentive bonus during this month of Ramadhan.

Affirming that it had dialogued and consulted with the social partner, Algérie Poste added that all measures for the satisfaction of the other demands have been taken, but will only be applicable once the union of the company is created.

France said it intends to withdraw troops from Mali Eight years after France sent troops to Mali to prevent jihadists from overrunning the country.

Five French soldiers have been killed by roadside bombs in Mali over the past 10 days, bringing to 50 the number of troops killed across the Sahel since France launched a campaign to clear northern Mali of jihadists in January 2013.

The latest victims included Sergeant Yvonne Huynh, the first female soldier killed since the French intervention began.

Her death Saturday, claimed by a group linked to al-Qaeda, coincided with a massacre across the border in western Niger, where unidentified gunmen killed around 100 villagers in one of the region’s worst atrocities.

These deaths — and disputed claims Tuesday from villagers in central Mali that up to 20 wedding guests were killed in an air strike — have clouded recent successes chalked up by France’s 5,100-member Barkhane counterterrorism force and its African partners.

In the past year, the French have killed the leader of the notorious al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb group, Abdelmalek Droukdel, as well as one of the military leaders of the al-Qaeda affiliated Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM).

Anxious to avoid becoming mired in a long Afghan-style conflict, Paris is preparing to announce a withdrawal of the 600 additional troops it deployed to the Sahel last year.

But whether the drawdown signals the beginning of the end of France’s Sahel mission is not yet clear.