Notorious people smuggler shot dead in Libya, officials say

One of the world’s most notorious people smugglers, who abused his position as a high-ranking member of the Libyan coastguard, has been shot dead in Tripoli, officials in Italy and Libya have said.

Abd al-Rahman Milad, known as Bija, was killed as he left the naval academy in Janzour, Tripoli, riding in a vehicle driven by a chauffeur. The car was hit by a barrage of heavy gunfire, Italian intelligence announced.

A UN security report accused Bija of being “directly involved in the sinking of migrant boats using firearms”. He was considered to be the leader of a criminal organisation operating in the Zawiya area in north-west Libya, about 28 miles west of Tripoli.

In 2017, the Italian newspaper Avvenire documented Bija’s presence in Sicily. He had obtained a pass to enter Italy in his role in the Libyan coastguard to take part in a meeting attended by north African delegates from a handful of international humanitarian agencies.

The meeting was part of a series of summits after the deal signed in February 2017 by Marco Minniti, then the Italian interior minister, and Fayez al-Sarraj, then the leader of Libya’s UN-recognised government, introducing a new level of cooperation between the Libyan coastguard and Italian agencies to intercept migrant dinghies at sea and bring them back to Libya, where aid agencies have said refugees suffered torture and abuse.

In 2019, after news of Bija’s participation in the meeting emerged, officials in Tripoli issued an arrest warrant. He was arrested in 2020 then released in 2021 and promoted from a captain to a major.

Two Italian journalists, Nancy Porsia and Nello Scavo, a reporter for Avvenire, who had extensively covered Bija’s criminal smuggling activities, found themselves under protective escorts after receiving death threats.

Porsia wrote on Facebook: “As a human being, I express a thought to his son who is not even two years old today for the loss of his father. His threats against me and my family are part of a story that is still being written.”

The reasons behind Bija’s killing are unclear. According to Scavo, “Bija had frequently threatened to expose secrets about the dealings between Libyan authorities and human traffickers”.