Filipino killed in Libya attack –DFA

A Filipino man was killed during an attack in Zawiya, Libya, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Monday.

“Our embassy in Tripoli confirmed that one Filipino died in the bombing in Zawiya,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said in a text message.

Jose did not provide further details, saying an embassy report “did not indicate his work or other details.”

Three other Filipino oil workers were wounded in Sunday's attack on Zawiya, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Tripoli, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported as it cited a Libyan security source.
 
The four Filipinos were riding in a car when the attack took place, the source said, adding that a Sudanese man and a Libyan man who were driving separate cars were also wounded.

Libya is in a state of civil war and eight Filipinos have been captured by militants in separate kidnappings in the last two months. Their whereabouts are still unknown.

Manila has declared Libya unsafe for Filipino travelers and called on all remaining 4,000 Philippine nationals there to leave and join the mandatory evacuation being offered by the DFA.

Earlier this year, a Filipino woman was injured in a terrorist attack on an upscale hotel in capital Tripoli.
 
In July last year, a Filipino construction worker was beheaded by militants while a Filipina nurse was kidnapped and gang-raped by a group of Libyan youth.

Despite repeated appeals from the Philippine government to leave, many Filipinos continued to hold on to their jobs in Libya amid the violence, citing lack of economic opportunities back home
 
The DFA has repeatedly said it will continue to enforce mandatory evacuation and even called on the relatives of those Filipinos who are in Libya to convince their loved ones to return to the Philippines as the violence and armed conflict showed no sign of easing.

Libya is currently divided with factions allied to two governments — the internationally recognized one in the east and the rival administration in Tripoli — vying for control of territory and oil facilities.

Both governments rely on former rebels who teamed up in 2011 to topple Muammar Gaddafi and now fight each other. They call themselves armies but are in fact a loose alliance of factions united mainly by common enemies.

The conflict is part of a complex struggle involving tribes, regions and Islamist and more secular factions backed by different regional powers. —with Reuters and Agence France Presse/KBK/ELR, GMA News

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