The video, which claims to show migrants being tortured in Libya, emerged on January 21, several months after an investigation by American TV channel CNN into slave markets in Libya sparked widespread outcry.

Scars, burns and bruises

The footage shows a man pouring burning hot melted plastic on a naked migrant, who screams in pain. The frame shifts and the scarred and burned bodies of several other men come into view.

In another sequence, an armed man tells a group of migrants to show their faces to the camera. They have obviously been beaten and are covered with burns, cuts and bruises, snaking across their faces, arms, torsos and legs. On the ground next to them, several people lie motionless.  

The video was filmed and posted to social media by Libyan militias seeking ransom money from the families of their captives. Some of the Sudanese migrants in the video were recognized by family members.

The video went viral across Africa just a few hours after it was posted. The African Union announced January 21 that it was opening an investigation into the matter. On January 24, reports surfaced that four Libyans were detained on suspicions of involvement with kidnapping and torturing Sudanese migrants.

It is unclear when and where the video was filmed but the fact that the armed man is wearing a coat makes it seem as if the video was filmed sometime this winter. Ahmed Hamza, a Libyan human rights activist who spoke with InfoMigrants, says the accent of one of the captors leads him to believe that the video was likely filmed in Bani Walid, a region located about a hundred kilometers (62 miles) south of Tripoli where there is widespread human trafficking.  

'All they did was hit us'

Accusations that Libyan militias are torturing migrants are not new. Every day, the InfoMigrants newsroom receives similar testimonies from migrants who traveled through Libya.

Early last year, a young Guinean migrant told our team that he had seen people die of hunger in captivity.

"All they did was hit us," he told InfoMigrants, after making it to a safe place in France.

Our team heard a similar testimony from a Cameroonian migrant, who was rescued at sea by the Aquarius after he fled Libya.

"They whip us morning, afternoon and evening. It’s our daily bread. The Libyans beat us all the time, without any reason," he told InfoMigrants.

Often, the captors film the people they torture as a way to pressure their families.

Many people in Sudan have called for fundraisers to pay the ransoms of these trapped individuals. Opponents to fundraisers believe that paying ransom is a bad idea and it will encourage Libyan militias to target Sudanese migrants for easy money.