ReliefWeb

Five years since the Libyan revolution which ousted Colonel Gadhafi from power, bullets are still flying. The situation is getting worse as fighting intensifies, pushing people out of their homes.

Crime and kidnapping are on the rise and in some cities people live in constant fear of the shelling and other attacks that continue to hit residential areas and health facilities leaving many dead or wounded.

Tens of thousands of displaced families still have no prospect of returning home. Most are renting houses, staying with host families or living in public buildings.

But for those with no alternative, the option of last resort is to go into a camp, where the conditions are appalling.

240km southeast of Misrata, in Jufra camp in central Libya, 1,200 people (200 families) live without decent shelter, water or sanitation. Most of the families have been here for months and given up hope.

“This toilet is the only one in the camp and was built by ourselves. But above all the families here have nothing. They have nothing at all”, says Mohamed.

Children play in the dirt as their parents’ despair of sending them to school.

“I used to go to college but I had to stop because of lack of transport”, says Mariam, whose father is dead and who shares cramped conditions with nine other family members.

Residents, like Hassan complain that the camp is full of rats and are calling for urgent assistance.

According to the UN, more than 400,000 people are internally displaced and some 2.4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. Many regions face fuel shortages and cuts in power and water supply. It is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain health care.

Since the beginning of the year, ICRC has stepped up its aid response, providing food and essential household items to those affected by the fighting across the country.

ICRC head of delegation, Katja Lorenz, fears the humanitarian situation is going to get worse and is calling for an extra 6 million CHF to push the total budget to 20 million CHF. “We've increased our assistance distributing food and non-food items to displaced people, supporting health structures and hospitals to treat people who are wounded as a result of the fighting which means we've actually used up what we had originally planned for the whole year,” explains Lorenz. “If we want to continue our current response to humanitarian needs we need extra resources.”

Over the past five months, the ICRC has provided mattresses, blankets and kitchen sets to more than 33,400 people and food to 18,500 people. Its teams have also supplied war wounded kits to hospitals to help 2,500 people injured in the fighting, as well as trained local doctors in war surgery.

ICRC is the largest international humanitarian organisation active in Libya. More than 100 staff are working out of offices in Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata and Sabha. They work closely with the Libyan Red Crescent supporting those in need.

For further information, please contact:

Eloide Schindler eschindler@icrc.org, +41 79 536 92 38 Geneva SwitzerlandAmmar Ammar, aammar@icrc.org,

Libyan mobile numbers: +218 92 894 21 45, +218 91 930 77 06 Tunisian mobile number: +216 26 90 34 85