A spokesperson for the Dutch Foreign Ministry, Daphne Kerremans said: “We can confirm that Yvonne has been detained since Friday by the Libyan authorities, because she was taking photos and making videos of nearby riots. We hope they will let us visit her as soon as possible.” On its Twitter pages the Foreign Ministry said that the embassy immediately asked authorities for an explanation and permission to visit. The term authorities has not been clarified. So far there has been no statement by the UN-supported Government of National Accord. This is exceedingly odd and troubling even if, as seems to be the case, Snitjer is safe and unharmed. It is almost a week since she disappeared and if she had been arrested by security forces of the recognized GNA government it should have been announced immediately. It is possible that some militia group arrested Snitjer but did not inform the GNA. Many militia groups supposedly allied with the GNA have their own agendas.
According to Snitjer’s last tweet, on May 26th, she was heading out to get something to eat a few hours before Ramadan started. Her usually active Twitter account has no etnries after that. Snitjer was last seen at 9:30 PM at the Cafe Roma in Tripoli’s old town. At 11:30 someone used her phone to call one of her contacts to ask who she was. Many thought that she had been kidnapped and naturally worried about her welfare. If a security force arrested her associated with the GNA, they should have immediately informed the Dutch. How is it nothing of the sort happened? A tweet suggests that perhaps there are those who do not want a foreigner around to photograph what will happen soon in Tripoli: “Perhaps kidnapping #Yvonne_Snitjer meant 2evacuate #Tripoli from any foreign media coverage In preparation 4the coming days !#free_Yvonne ”
Snitjer has lived in Tripoli for the last two years and founded the Al- Eureka educational Center. The Dutch mission to Libya operates out of Tunis. We should know soon what exactly happened. Snitjer was friends with photographer Jeroen Oerlemans who was killed probably by an Islamic State sniper in Libya in 2016 as shown on the appended video.
Other tweets confirm the Herald story. One tweet says: “Update: when asked detained by who/where/why-“The Libyan authorities, because she was taking photos & making videos nearby riots” #Libya” Another tweet says: “Dutch Foreign Ministry confirm @YvonneSnitjer “has been detained since Friday. We hope the Libyan authorities let us visit her” asap #Libya” An earlier tweet noted:”According to circulating news, she’s found & safe ,undergoing procedural issues at a legitimate security center. ” Note that althout the security center is said to be legitimate it is not named! If named it could very well reveal the group who arrested her.
Update Libyana 83 sent the following correction on twitter. Thanks. “Hi Ken , Yvonne my friend is not a journalist, she is the founder of Al Eureka https://www.facebook.com/Al-Eureka-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%83%D8%A7-533797710048801/ … you can find her on twitter as well. I thought that given she was arrested for taking photos she was a photo journalist. I originally mentioned that Snitjer was a reporter several times and I decided to delete those,
