By Adam Ali.
Benghazi, 27 March 2015:
The Benghazi Municipal Council and the city’s Crisis Committee have put out an urgent call for . . .[restrict]medical personnel in the city to report for duty.
Council Sanitations spokesman Hani Al-Oraibi told the Libya Herald the committee is looking in particular for medical staff who worked in clinics and hospitals that are currently shut down. It wants such medical professionals to report to it in the next four days
It is believed that many medical personnel have not been showing up to work because they have left Benghazi.
Meanwhile, Benghazi’s Crisis Committee has drafted a list of urgently needed assistance. It says in need funds for policing, public utilities and health sectors, as well as the needs of assisting residents displaced from their homes.
Officially, it is only body in Benghazi authorised by the government to disburse humanitarian aid. It is separate to Benghazi Municipal Council and was funded by Thinni in July 2014. It is headed by Zakaria Rajab Ali Bitamer who is also a member of Benghazi Municipal Council.
The Committee was granted four million dinars by the government, payable in tranches of one million at a time. It is now well into its last one-million-dinar tranche and has requested further funding from the government.
Hani Bel Ras Ali, press officer for the Committee, told the Libya Herald that the city had not received any financial assistance from the government in the past quarter and that it has exhausted all its own money. However, another crisis committee member, Salem Al-Juhao, claimed that it has been seven months since the city received any government funds.
The request for further funding was presented to the Prime Minister at a meeting with him on Wednesday. [/restrict]
