The Italian foreign ministry’s undersecretary, Manliu De Stefano, said Saturday that the problem facing us in the case of Italian fishermen detained in eastern Libya is that they are not in the hands of the Libyan government, but rather in the hands of a “militia”.
De Stefano added, “In this case, we are in a situation in which those who detain the fishermen are not representing the Libyan government, but basically just militias, and thus everything becomes more complicated,” according to what was reported by the Italian news agency AKI.
De Stefano explained that the neighboring countries of Libya are helping us in their influence on the “local militias,” indicating that they have provided assistance to fishermen, and that some of them need special medicines, but the issue is more complicated than it was in the past, according to the agency.
It is worth noting that the Italian government has been seeking, since early September, to release a number of fishermen detained in the city of Benghazi, accused of fishing in Libyan territorial waters.
