{"id":271973,"date":"2024-07-27T09:32:29","date_gmt":"2024-07-27T01:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=271973"},"modified":"2024-07-27T09:32:30","modified_gmt":"2024-07-27T01:32:30","slug":"south-africa-police-say-95-libyans-detained-at-suspected-illegal-military-training-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=271973","title":{"rendered":"South Africa: Police say 95 Libyans detained at suspected illegal military training camp"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

JOHANNESBURG, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — South Africa authorities rounded up 95 Libyans in a raid Friday at a farm that appeared to have been converted into a military training base, police said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The early morning raid was near the town of White River in the northeastern province of Mpumalanga, about 360 kilometres east of Johannesburg, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The place, which was initially designated as a training site, appears to have been converted into an illegal military training base,” police said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The 95 individuals taken into custody are all Libyan nationals and are currently being questioned by the relevant authorities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newzroom Afrika television footage from the scene showed a heavy police presence outside the suspected camp, which included green military-style tents and sandbags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It showed the detained men standing in groups and wearing civilian clothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mpumalanga’s safety and security minister, Jackie Macie, told local media the men had entered the country in April and claimed to be training to be security guards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However they had “violated their visa”, he said. Authorities were processing the group with the aim of sending them back to their country of origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You can see that this is a military base,” he said, adding police were following up information that there were other similar camps in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The site was said to be a training camp for a security company but it is a military base by the looks of things,” police spokesman Donald Mdhluli said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The owner of the security company was a South African national, he said. Police were investigating if he had permission to run the site as a military-style camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African officials will be in touch with Libyan authorities about the group, most of whom were said to be on student visas, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We do suspect them of serious crime because we have had multiple complaints from the community for cases including rape,” Mdhluli said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are not arresting them now but we are taking them in for questioning and will investigate any criminal activity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The raid was launched two days after authorities received intelligence about the site in the province, which adjoins Mozambique and Eswatini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the men did not speak English and it was not immediately clear whether the Libyans were affiliated to any group, Mdhluli said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No weapons or illegal substances were found on the site immediately but a search was ongoing, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We take any threat to the security and stability of our province and country very seriously,” Mpumalanga acting police commissioner Major General Zeph Mkhwanazi said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no immediate threat to community safety, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa has porous borders and high corruption and criminality which experts say have made it fertile ground for criminal syndicates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its security problems have given rise to a huge private security industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country has more than 15,000 security firms employing about 2.8 million guards, providing armed response and training services, according to the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also concerns that the country may be a base for jihadist financing in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States Treasury Department announced Tuesday sanctions against what it said were two Daesh operatives based in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They used robberies and kidnappings for ransom to raise money, and one was a suspected Daesh trainer and facilitator, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Libya is still struggling to recover from years of war and chaos after the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although relative calm has returned to oil-rich Libya in the past four years, clashes periodically occur between its myriad armed groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most are allied with either the UN-recognised government in Tripoli or the rival administration based in the east. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOHANNESBURG, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — South Africa authorities rounded up 95 Libyans in a raid Friday at a farm that appeared to have been converted into a military training base, police said. The early morning raid was near the town of White River in the northeastern province of Mpumalanga, about 360 kilometres east of Johannesburg, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271973"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=271973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271976,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271973\/revisions\/271976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=271973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=271973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=271973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}