Six Egyptians kidnapped by militants in Libya

An armed group in Libya's Bani Walid has kidnapped six Egyptian citizens, an aide to the Egyptian foreign minister for consular affairs announced on Tuesday.

The victims, all of whom worked in Tripoli, were abducted as they were travelling back to Egypt, according to the aide.

The Egyptian foreign ministry and Egypt's embassy in Libya are following up on the situation and "exerting all necessary efforts" to free the captives, he added.

"Information available about the incident as yet indicates that the six Egyptians were kidnapped in the city of Bani Walid by an armed group that interjected their path, stopped their car and took them to an unknown location," he said in a statement.

The foreign ministry reiterated its call that all citizens should avoid travelling to Libya due to the unstable security conditions in the war-torn country.

Last April, Bani Walid witnessed the killing of 13 Egyptians over a dispute with the families of local human traffickers.

In 2015, the Egyptian government issued a warning to citizens to avoid travelling to Libya after the Islamic State group killed 20 Egyptian migrant workers near Derna.

In response, Egypt launched air raids targeting IS training and ammunition sites in Libya.

The warning was renewed later that year and is still in effect. 

Thousands of Egyptians in Libya have been forced to leave their jobs and return to Egypt as violence intensified since 2014, when conflicting parties sought to take control of the country.