By Libya Herald staff.
Benghazi/Tripoli/Kufra, 18 October 2014:
Almost the entire population of Garyounis and neighbouring Bu Sneib have now fled because of continued . . .[restrict]shelling in the area. This includes all the Tawerghans at a refugee camp in Garyounis.
“Some 510 Tawerghan families at the Garyounis camp fled to Gemenis and Ajdabiya” Abdulrahman Al-Shakshak, head of Tawergha Local Council based in Tripoli, told the Libya Herald.
Some Tawerghans had been wounded as a result of the shelling, he said, and it had caused chaos and panic. “Missile shrapnel caused injuries to some people, but not serous injuries,” Shikshak said.
A massive fire at the camp last night, following the evacuation, has since been reported, causing considerable damage and likely to make any immediate return impossible.
“The families are now staying in five schools in Gemenis and the rest have gone to Ajdabiya seeking shelter,” Shikshak explained.
Gememis Municipal Council met yesterday to organise how best to provide accommodation, food and medical attention for the Tawerghans.
Shikshak’s own council too is now urgently seeking funds to help to its refugees across the country but, according to him, does not know where to ask. “We are in need for financial support to aid our refugees, and we torn as who to ask.”
Tawerghan refugees are spread throughout Libya having been forced out of their town at the end of the revolution because of its support for Qaddafi and involvement in the siege of Misrata
For his part, the director of the Benghazi branch of the Libyan Authority for Relief and Humanitarian Assistance, Mohammed El Atram, was quoted by Buwabat Al-Wasat saying that the entire population of Garyounis and Bu Sneib had fled as had most residents in Majouri.
His organisation was starting a full list of all those who had been displaced by the heavy fighting in the city, he said.
Meanwhile last night, a suicide bomber blew himself up and killed three civilians at a roadblock in Buhdeima. The attack is believed to be in revenge for the murder by local vigilantes of a Buhdeima family of Ansar Al-Sharia supporters.
Following the death of Abdel Salem Ben Sweidi and his three sons Mustafa, Khaled and Ibrahim, shot dead in their home on Wednesday morning, the Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council reportedly threatened to avenge it.
Those killed in the suicide attack have been named as Majdi Al-Orabi, Adel Al-Falah, Said Al-Hassouni. Their bodies and the remains of the suicide bomber were taken to Benghazi Medical Centre. A fourth man gravely wounded in the attack was also taken there.
It is reported that until last night, the BMC has received 47 bodies from the fighting since it began three days ago – 20 of them yesterday alone.
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