By Jamal Adel.
Kufra, 31 January 2015:
The Red Crescent, in partnership with the government-owned General Telecommunications Company, is to launch an airlift of . . .[restrict]food and medical aid to benefit displaced families in southern Libya.
The Red Crescent has said that approximately 2,000 families around Obari, Murzuk, Sebha and Ghat had been displaced due to tribal clashes between the Tebu and the Tuareg.
According to local media, the airlift will land at Ghat Airport, as well as the airport used by the oil company Repsol and the one at the El Fil oilfield.
Meanwhile, the warring Tuaregs and Tebus in Obari are refusing to lay down their weapons although at the moment there is an uneasy calm between both sides..
Fighting erupted in Obari in early September between the Tebu-controlled joint-security room and Tuaregs initially from outwith the town. Since then the two communities found themselves supporting opposing camps – the Tuaregs largely with Libya Dawn and the Tebus with Operation Dignity, although Tuaregs in the town tried to stay neutral.
As a result both Tuareg and Tebu families have been evacuated from Obari; mediation efforts repeatedly came to nothing. The death toll in the town as a result of clashes has been put at 95 deaths with hundreds wounded. The town now remains almost empty, with almost no food supplies and no electricity .
The Tuaregs fighters are now reportedly besieged in the nearby the Tendi mountain. The Tebus have constantly been unable to defeat them, although, according to locals, the Tuaregs on Tendi are running out of ammunition and supplies.
Local elders are relaunching their mediation efforts. However, the Tebus are said to be unresponsive to such moves. [/restrict]
