Boubacar*, a 22 year old man from Mali, arrived in Libya in 2019. He was detained for several months, and saw his friends being killed. He shared his story with MSF teams on board of the Geo Barents, after having been rescued on September 20, 2021.

I arrived in Libya in 2019. Just the word ‘Libya’ is scary for me now. I spent a lot of time there, always trying to escape. One night, we got into a 12-metre boat, but the engine stopped functioning and we went back to Libya. I then worked for five months before I tried to cross to Europe for a second time. We were caught at sea by armed guards in the middle of the night. They took us back to Libya and locked us up in a centre. Conditions there were disgusting. They killed some of my closest friends in front of me, it was horrific. They meant a lot to me, after all the beatings and abuses we had gone through together. Every day we would see wounded or even dead people. We were treated as if we were not human. After months locked up, one day an airstrike hit the centre in Tripoli. I survived. 
I tried to cross to Europe again, but the Libyans caught us again, and we were locked up, again. I spent another five months in a detention centre with three friends who all died there. Do you understand? They treated us so badly, repeatedly beating us with sticks, that my friends couldn't survive. We had to use that horrendous place as a toilet, but drink the water from the same place.
Luckily, I was freed at one point and went to town, where everybody knew me and called me “grillé” [French expression to mean burned] because I managed to survive all sort of dangerous things. But thanks to God – I did survive. I had been through so much that I was unable to talk to anybody. When I was sitting in a corner, people were saying ‘this man is crazy, get away from him’. In the detention centre, you do become crazy. I stayed strong and focused, despite having lost people in front of my eyes, which hurts. 
During the confinement in Libya, we spent eight months surviving by selling cans of aluminum to buy bread. Then I left to the capital and worked two months as a mechanic, 24 hours every day, I worked like a slave. For six months, the owner only paid me half for my work. It was forced labor and we were also beaten. These guys are heavily armed. They shot at me once, but I survived - again.
In Tripoli, I was locked up in the underground floor of a building, in complete isolation. After three months they let me go out to see the light finally. The day I saw the sun I thanked God. 
Thank God, I'm still alive even though I've lost friends and brothers. I left the country without losing my soul, without losing my conscience, without losing my mind. 
END

*This story was collected by MSF Communications Manager on board of the Geo Barents, in September 2021.
* Survivor’s name has been changed to protect the identity of the survivors
* Photo credit: Pablo Garrigós Cucarella/MSF