Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Libya

Explosive Remnants of War: A constant danger to civilians in the Nafusa Mountains

The on-going hostilities in the coastal areas and parts of Libya has led to civilian deaths and injuries, and caused a serious disruption to civilian lives. The UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon on Thursday, 11 August, expressed his deep concern over reports of the ‘unacceptably large number of civilian casualties as a result of the conflict in Libya’.

The threat to civilians from the conflict, unexploded ordnance, newly laid mine fields and bombed or abandoned ammunition sites is increasingly clear in several areas including the Nafusa Mountains in western Libya.

The NGO, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a press statement on 8 July, that the Libyan government forces had placed at least three minefields containing antipersonnel and antivehicle landmines outside the village of al-Qawalish in the western Nafusa Mountains.

Mohamed Milad al-Fakhal, from Zintan, the second biggest city in the Nafusa Mountains, told OCHA that he nearly lost his family of 11 members, when his home was hit by a GRAD missile during fighting between the government forces and the rebels back in June. “It was very scary, we were inside our home when the GRAD missile pieced a hole through the kitchen wall,” he added.

The missile, left his 18 months old granddaughter Iman Akram, with a permanent hearing disability, and caused some structural damage to Mohamed’s home. The family fled their home to a nearby village, but returned two weeks later after the fighting had subsided.

In residential areas and in buildings destroyed during the conflict, many unexploded ordnance (UXO) lay exposed and are within reach of civilians particularly children. In Nalut, Nagi Eissa Barjeeh lost both his children, after a lethal incident involving children playing with a UXO.

Recent assessments into the Nafusa Mountains in western Libya have highlighted concerns to do with threats posed by Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) to the population. These concerns include contamination from unexploded ordnance on roads and towns as well as confirmed reports of mine laying.

Max Dyck, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) programme Manager for Libya said, “these threats are a constant danger to the local population and remain a threat often long after fighting leaves the area.”

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has facilitated four inter-agency missions into the Nafusa Mountains since the beginning of July to assess access and humanitarian gaps and needs.

As a result of these missions the United Nations will be opening up an office in the mountains to coordinate humanitarian work and support NGO partners deliver assistance, as well as improve cooperation with the Libyan Red Crescent.

Brendan McDonald, from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that “Coordination work in the Nafusa Mountains will enable us to understand and monitor the overall needs of people in the region. This will enable the humanitarian aid workers to provide timely and needed assistance.”

Many residential areas in Zintan, Nalut, Yefran, Jadu and others remain contaminated with ERW. Injuries to civilians caused by ERW and other conflict related injuries remain the main public health priority in Libya.

The risk to civilians increases with the current population movement, particularly towards the mountains, as they flee from the conflict zones along the coastal areas.

Additionally, the improved security situation in the Nafusa Mountains is encouraging more Libyans to return to their home communities from Tunisia.

The Civilian and Military Councils within the towns are currently dealing with the problem but the magnitude of the ERW contamination is far bigger than present local capacity. One Council official in Nalut asked ‘for UN support’ in mapping the areas suspected of having UXOs.

With improvements in access and security within the Nafusa Mountains, UNMAS Libya is moving ahead with plans to deploy an operations/ liaison officer there.

The UNMAS programme Manager said “in order to effectively coordinate these activities the Joint Mine Action Coordination Team (JMACT) is planning to open another sub-office in Nalut to support these activities.”

JMACT plans to give support to strengthening local capacities in the reporting of mine/UXO reports and incidents. Immediate plans include beginning risk education program within Nafusa Mountains in the next few weeks.

Juma al-Soweisi, head of the Nalut Media Centre, requested support from the UN with risk education messaging. Radio Nalut broadcasts four hours daily of humanitarian messaging to the local population.

JMACT partners are already providing lifesaving risk education to civilians, warning them of the dangers of the various ERW that scars the area. ICRC is present in the Nafusa Mountains and it undertakes spot clearance tasks to remove these ERW throughout the region.

Disclaimer

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.