Italian MP Angelo Bonelli has described the continued funding and equipping of the so-called Libyan coastguard as “complicity,” demanding that Rome immediately cease all forms of cooperation. Bonelli’s comments follow an incident where a Libyan coastguard boat fired shots at the humanitarian rescue vessel, Ocean Viking.

Bonelli stated that the boat used in the attack was one that Italy had donated to Tripoli in 2023. The MP criticised the “deafening silence” of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government regarding the incident, noting that it was not the first time Italian-made boats had been used against non-governmental organisations.

Bonelli stressed that it is unacceptable for Italian vessels to be turned into “tools of violence” against those who save lives. He described Meloni’s silence as a “political and moral submission” that disgraces Italy in the eyes of both Europe and the world.