Nearly 400,000 displaced in Libya due to fighting: UN

Tuesday, 20 January 2015 00:07 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Tens of thousands of Libyans have been displaced in the east of the country because of renewed fighting, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has said. Heavy fighting has been going on between Libyan pro-government forces and Islamist groups in the country’s second-largest city Benghazi for the past three months. Tens of thousands of people have had to flee their homes in Benghazi, the UNHCR said on Friday (16 January).

“In Libya, an upsurge of fighting since the start of the year across several towns and cities in the east, including Benghazi, has sparked more displacement. Many people have had to flee for a fourth or fifth time, making numbers hard to estimate. Nonetheless, in Benghazi alone, the local council is reporting that around 90,000 people there are unable to return home,” said William Spindler, UNHCR Spokesman. Spindler said Libya itself was hosting thousands of refugees from other countries, who were now facing growing uncertainty. “Across the country we estimate that approximately 400,000 people are displaced. In addition, Libya is host to nearly 37,000 refugees and asylum-seekers of different nationalities whose humanitarian conditions are increasingly precarious,” he told a news conference in Geneva. The fighting in eastern Libya is part of a wider struggle in the country where two governments and parliaments, allied to armed groups, are vying for control almost four year after the ousting of long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi. The army in the east is loyal to Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni who was forced to leave Tripoli in August for the eastern city of Bayda when a group called Libya Dawn seized the capital. The new rulers in Tripoli set up their own government and parliament, but these have not been recognised by the United Nations. Both sides fight each other on several fronts. The fighting has disrupted services and essential supplies in many areas, the UNHCR said. “In southwest Libya, internally displaced people from the town of Awbari are facing difficulties in their daily lives as services are being severely disrupted by ongoing fighting between rival tribal groups. The current fighting has meant that schools, hospitals and markets remain completely inaccessible. Shortages of fuel, electricity, water and food are being reported by local crisis committees and NGOs,” Spindler said. Libya has failed to build up a national army and efficient state institutions since Gaddafi’s ousting as the country is effectively run by former rebel brigades who use their weapons to fight for control.