The agreement on the future of Libya has been signed. The hope that the hostilities between Prime Minister Fayez al Serraj and his rival Khalifa Haftar, the general of Cyrenaica, may come to an end has taken shape in the city of Geneva, in the presence of the United Nations Support Mission (Unsmil). Common objectives and general principles concern the integrity of Libya, the fight against terrorism and respect for human rights. Yet the living conditions of thousands of people continue to be alarming.
World public opinion can now breathe a sigh of relief. One of the most dangerous wars in recent years could come to an end and disappear. The truth, however, is much more complex than good intentions. A humanitarian emergency with serious future repercussions continues to persist in Libya. One million people are in need of humanitarian aid, 392,000 are displaced people currently present in the country and 585,000 are those migrants and refugees, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, who try the Mediterranean route, risking their life to reach Europe. The alternative is Libyan detention centres where they are left in inhumane conditions.
Following the suspension of hostilities in southern Tripoli in June 2020, there has been a slow return of displaced families but the total number of displaced and homeless people across the country remains 30% higher today than in the same period in 2019. Returning to the city means, for many of them, having to start from scratch. The lack of basic services is a worrying fact for thousands of people.
INTERSOS, operating in Libya since 2018, continue to assist the most vulnerable including women and children. Children are taken care of in the two educational and recreational centres in the city of Tripoli and Sebah. Safe places for training, meeting and cultural exchange for both Libyan and migrant boys and girls.
With the evolution of the political and military situation and the consequent social repercussions, INTERSOS has launched a new itinerant humanitarian aid project. A mobile unit aimed at completing the ‘static’ intervention of the “Baity” centre, by expanding awareness and protection activities, reaching as many children as possible. The mobile unit is composed of two social workers, a nurse and a doctor.
The goal is to be able to sensitise the families reached on fundamental health issues including nutrition and hygiene. Protection activities also include the identification of cases of abuse among the assisted persons, monitoring their physical and psychological condition to understand how to intervene to support them.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which in Libya affected a total of 56,000 people with a peak of infections in recent weeks, the activities carried out by INTERSOS staff continue. They have been adapted according to the relative precautionary measures and restrictions aimed at mitigating the contagion curve. In a territory with a highly fragile health system, the COVID-19 outbreak has made things even more precarious. The electricity goes off suddenly, shutting down machinery essential to save people’s lives, making impossible the functioning of health facilities and hard to monitor the real progress of the epidemic.
In this context, continuing to be present and operational in the field even with mobile units reaching as many people as possible, becomes an urgent duty for humanitarian actors.