Government officials from Libya have reported on Saturday that a total of 20 Egyptians Christians has been abducted in various locations. The kidnapping was pegged to the Ansar al-Sharia militia who kidnapped 13 of the victims on Saturday in the city of Sirte. The remaining victims were kidnapped in the succeeding days according to the report.

No clear information was released with regards to the identity of the kidnapped victims; the only confirmed fact is that they are Coptic Christians.

According to recent statistics, thousands of Egyptians are working in Libya most in the construction and various craft sectors. Reports also confirmed that several of them were killed during the past year due to the unending unrest in the Libyan territory.

In Feb. 2014, along the city of Benghazi seven Egyptian Christians were shot and found dead. Just last week, residents of the town of Sirte discovered two dead bodies believed to be a couple and member of the Egyptian Coptic faith. The couple's 13 year old daughter was abducted and later on found dead.

According to the local chairman, the reason of the attack was purely motivated by religious zeal since no money or belongings were reportedly taken.

Sirte, which was the hometown of Muamma Gaddafi, is located 500 kilometers east of the Libyan capital city of Tripoli. The city is known to be controlled by various Islamist militants. One of this is the Ansar al-Sharia, an Islamist group that was recently added to the United Nations list of terror groups with links to al-Qaeda. The group is also suspected of administering a training camp that provides jihadists to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.

Since the overthrow of the Gaddafi government, Christians in Libya has voiced out their concerns about their fear of Islamic activities against Christians.

Aside from Sirte, the cities of Tripoli and Benghazi are also under the control of armed Islamist militia.