MeronSemedar

It was on a cold, snowy winter that I went to visit my longtime mentor distinguished Ghanaian political economist professor George Ayittey at his Washington Office. His office, which he runs the Free Africa Foundation is a few blocks away from the White House and the Congress building. On his wall he kept many photos over the years that he had taken with high profile politicians, musicians, African made crafts and awards he received.

In 2008, Prof. Ayittey was nominated as top 100 public intellectuals by Foreign Policy. He was an advisor to the Secretary of State on African policy during the Obama administration. He went on to shape African politics, economics, and investment, by appearing on many international channels and wrote some of the most influential books on Africa. To mention a few are Defeating Dictators and Africa Unchained. 
For a long time, our communication was via telephone. On one of my trip to Washington DC, I made it my mission to go and meet him, which he was so humb…

Since the fall of the former dictator -Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has turned into a place of war between different military forces. In the process, many refugees were caught in a crossfire and many were held in inhumane conditions. In December 2017, CNN brought light to the Slave trade of refugees that has been going on in the country. Libya has been the gateway for many North and West African refugees to cross the perilous Mediterranean Sea to Europe in unsafe boats since the early 2000s.      Libyan armed forces in an active war. Source - Getty image
Having been kept in overcrowded facilities for several years: refugees in Libya faced beating, abuse, and unhygienic situation. Military personnel has the ultimate power over the refugees and abusive treatment have become a common practice. In recent months the situation got even worse, some of the refugees were taken from the facilities they were in and no one knows their whereabouts.                     Refugees in one of Tripoli…