By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 10 October 2014:
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has said that its efforts to provide healthcare, food and . . .[restrict]other basic commodities to Libya’s internally displaced have been hampered by insufficient funding and limited access to affected areas caused by fighting among rival groups.
In a press briefing on Friday in Geneva, UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards added that the number of displaced persons in Libya was growing — it was now believed to be about 287,000 people in 29 cities and towns countrywide, he said.
Most of the displaced are staying with extended family members, while those who are unable to stay with relatives have sought shelter in schools, parks or non-residential buildings that have been converted into shelters, Edwards added.
The main area of recent displacement, he said, had been around the Warshefana district south west of Tripoli, causing some 100,000 people to flee over the past three weeks. The Benina area outside of Benghazi is the second area of concern, from which some 15,000 people have fled.
Because of the fighting between rival groups, access to warehouses with humanitarian supplies was often impossible, Edwards said. Therefore, more expensive cross-border aid convoys were the only way to get supplies to those who need them — when security permits.
The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has called for an immediate ceasefire and access to carry out further assessment missions and distribution of humanitarian aid, but the appeal appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
The UN had issued a humanitarian appeal for Libya requesting additional funding to continue helping those affected by the ongoing crisis in the country, Edwards said.
Furthermore, Edwards pointed out that the fighting was affecting refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants — mainly from the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa — in Libya. The growing lawlessness, the hike in food prices and Libya’s policy of detaining refugees and migrants had pushed many of them to risk making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe.
Of the more than 165,000 refugees who have made it to Europe in the past year, the majority departed from Libya’s shores. [/restrict]
