MISRATA, 23 May 2013 (IRIN) - Two years ago Syrians in the relative security of their own country watched the unfolding crisis in Libya descend into a devastating civil war.

Since then the tables have turned, and many of those same families find themselves in Libya after fleeing the Syrian conflict, which has left an estimated 6.8 million people (around a third of the population) in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

Testimony, Donald Y. Yamamoto
Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs
Opening Statement
Washington, DC
May 21, 2013

[Before the House Subcommittees on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights; International Organizations; Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade; Middle East and North Africa]

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Executive Summary

Advice for under-resourced newsrooms, one-to-one mentoring for editorial staff.

By IWPR Libya - Libya

In the most comprehensive media training programme to reach eastern Libya, IWPR has been working with newsrooms and individual reporters to raise standards and skills.

The three-month initiative covered seven towns and cities from Ajdabiya eastwards to Tobruk, taking in Benghazi. Print and broadcast news outlets here are mostly isolated and badly under-resourced.

IOM, in partnership with Tripoli University, has completed a six-month course for 31 Libyan health, educational and social experts on how to cope with psychological reactions in the aftermath of 2011 Libyan conflict.

The "Psychosocial Responses in War-Torn Societies" programme was designed to increase knowledge and awareness of psychosocial approaches in addressing psychological and social impacts of collective violence.

CAIRO, 16 May 2013 (IRIN) - Until government and revolutionary forces attacked the Libyan town of Bani Walid, about 170km southeast of the capital Tripoli in October last year, Abdullah Warfella had been determined never to leave.

But after two weeks of imprisonment and torture, the 68-year-old former contractor fled.

"They accused me of supporting [former ruler Muammar] Gaddafi during the revolution, which is not true at all," Warfella told IRIN in Cairo. "These people have turned life into hell for people, not just in Bani Walid, but everywhere in Libya."

14 May 2013 – The United Nations Security Council has condemned ‘in the strongest terms’ an attack near a hospital in the city of Benghazi, and stressed that the international community remains committed to supporting Libya’s democratic transition.

In a press statement released late yesterday, the Security Council expressed its condolences to the families of those killed in the 13 May attack and to the Government and people of Libya.

05/14/2013 01:35 GMT

by Ibrahim al-Majbari

BENGHAZI, Libya, May 14, 2013 (AFP) - A deadly car bombing in the Libyan city of Benghazi on Monday has unleashed international condemnation and highlighted the insecurity still ravaging the city which was the cradle of the uprising against late dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Officials gave contradicting death tolls after the devastating bomb destroyed a restaurant and damaged cars and buildings near Al-Jala hospital in the centre of Benghazi.

Ambulances are mandatory whenever DanChurchAid’s demining personnel enter the field to remove landmines and unexploded ordnance that have been left behind after armed conflicts. In Libya the ambulance has proved itself to be indispensable on several occasions.

“Last year, two of our colleagues were involved in an accident. If there hadn’t been an ambulance present, they might not have made it.” That’s how Youssef Mohamad Al Hoti, who is a paramedic and ambulance driver for DanChurchAid’s Humanitarian Mine Action operations in Misrata, expresses it.