A Libyan airstrike that killed more than 40 migrants and injured at least 130 people has been declared a war crime by the United Nations. 

According to BBC, a UN official said the attack occurred outside of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, which directly impacted the Tajoura Detention Center that houses hundreds of migrants. 

“It was the second time the shelter was hit,” UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said. 

The African country has been war torn since former President Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011, leaving Libya in the hands of military and political factions, as reported by OkayAfrica. Sub-Saharan Africans frequently cross through Libya as they attempt to flee from their countries to Europe; subsequently, government-run detention centers created by the European Union are responsible for sending back migrants who cross the Mediterranean. 

The UN said the airstrike shows why the EU policy of sending migrants back to Libya must end. 

“This attack clearly could constitute a war crime, as it killed by surprise innocent people whose dire conditions forced them to be in that shelter,” Ghassan Salama, head of the UN Mission in Libya said. 

The airstrike has been blamed on General Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA) forces as a part of their three months-long efforts to seize Tripoli, reports Al Jazeera. 

“People were everywhere, the camp was destroyed, people are crying here, there is psychological trauma, the lights cut off,” Dr. Khalid Bin Attia, Libyan health ministry official. 

“We couldn’t see the area very clear but just when the ambulance came, it was horrible, blood is everywhere, somebody’s guts in pieces.”According to the UN’s mission in Libya, approximately 3,500 migrants and refugees at detention centers near combat zones are at risk.