The battles in Laithi, Benghazi have increased, forcing a pregnant Mouna, her husband and her six children from their home. They now live in a school with 20 families and rely on aid for food and blankets to protect them against the cold.
A 56-square-meter classroom functions as the family’s kitchen, living room and bedroom — this is their third school.
The battles in Laithi, Benghazi have increased, forcing a pregnant Mouna, her husband and her six children from their home. They now live in a school with 20 families and rely on aid for food and blankets to protect them against the cold.
A 56-square-meter classroom functions as the family’s kitchen, living room and bedroom — this is their third school.
Mouna, who has begun suffering from pregnancy fatigue, said the aid they receive is hardly enough and the food products have to be prepared with milk, which is expensive. Her husband’s state salary has been suspended, adding to the family’s suffering.
Terrifying figures
A report prepared by the General Secretariat of the Libyan Red Crescent, issued at the beginning of May revealed that nearly half a million people have become internally displaced in the last 11 months of the war and with the increased violence among the conflicted parties.
The report showed that since the beginning of the conflict in May 2014 until April 2015, more than 100,000 people have been displaced in Benghazi, which became the city with the most internally displaced people (IDP). The Red Crescent’s mission is becoming more difficult when obliged to move the center of accommodating the displaced people with the expanding circle of conflict.
The wave of displacement also reached a peak since the launching of the Operation Dignity military campaign, led by Khalifa Haftar in mid May 2014, which forced many families in Benghazi to flee the city in fear of the nearby battles and the haphazard shells which hit numerous houses.
From Marj to Benghazi
Even the places to which the people of Benghazi resorted were not good enough. Marj’s schools evacuated the displaced people when the school year started. Therefore, they had no choice but to return to their homes in Benghazi.
“My family and I are fed up with this situation, but we cannot do anything,” complained Um Retaj who was displaced from Bu Atni and is currently living with her family in the same school where Mouna lives.
The fifty-year-old married woman with five children said they were forced to leave their home five months ago after it was hit by many haphazard shells — luckily without casualties.
“When the battles approached Bu Atni, our house was hit, but we managed to get out with many neighbors and went to Marj city which was receiving displaced people at the time. We stayed in a school and the charities there provided us with supplies, aid and blankets,” she added.
Most affected
According to statistics by the Media Center of Benghazi’s Communities (an official civil organization aiming to count the displaced families inside and outside Benghazi and provide them with aids), 22,000 families have left their homes.
These figures echo the Red Crescent’s statistics which revealed that 109,000 people have fled the city, which makes Benghazi’s people the most affected by the conflict during the period covered in the report.
Tawfik Shukri, spokesperson of the Red Crescent in Benghazi, said, “The armed conflict is still ongoing in seven areas in Benghazi, including the city center. It is impossible to return to these areas.”
Shukri, who is also displaced with his family, fears that the clashes will expand to other semi-safe areas. “We will be forced to move and expand the 63 accommodation centers represented, in fact, in closed schools,” he said.
There are, he added, nearly 27,000 displaced people residing at homes and constitute displaced people communities according to their place of residence. “This figure is being verified since many of them refuse to be registered as they feel humiliated to be classified as displaced people,” he explained.
Western area
The Red Crescent’s report said there are two conflict areas in western Libya. The first one is around the cities of Kikla and Qalaa in the Western Mountain which witnessed clashes with the cities of Zintan and Alrajaban and produced 39,000 displaced people by October 2014.
The other area is in Wershfana which is fighting against the Libya Dawn’s forces. By August 2014, the number of IDPs reached 17,000. The Red Crescent said this figure is not final as the armed conflict in Libya is continuing particularly in Benghazi and Wershfana.
The report also indicated that Derna, the stronghold of extremist groups in the east, witnessed a ‘secondary displacement’. However, the report did not explain the circumstances of this displacement. In the south, where the armed conflict in Ubari is of a tribal nature, 18,000 people have become internally displaced.
Inside Tripoli, the Crisis Committee of the City Council estimated the number of families who left the capital due to fighting, tribal conflict or political opinion to be 7,240. Observers say these figures could rise.
Displacement and besiege
Abdulmoneim Kabo, Chairman of the Social Committee in Alrajaban, said the city received 85 displaced young men from Fashloom and Tajura in Tripoli, who fled the latest fights. He expected the arrival of more people and the displacement of families from Wershfana, Bir al-Ghanam, Airport Raod and the Cottage District due to the intensified armed clashes there.
Alrajaban city has already received 600 displaced families some of whom have managed to return and repair their homes, but 95 families could not make up for their losses and they are still in Alrajaban city distributed and scattered across the residents’ homes.
Kabo added that the families are cooperating with each other to provide the displaced families with aid, as Alrajaban and Zintan are besieged. “Many of these families are now producing bread and sweets in addition to working in crafts to make a living,” he said.“Many of the displaced families which we have already
The Libyan Red Crescent is the only organization which responded to this conflict through a local documenting work which included humanitarian aid for the displaced and following up the missing and the unidentified corpses.
However, the Red Crescent’s report did not shed light on the displaced people outside Libya. The UNHCR said around 100,000 Libyans have fled their country since the end of 2014.
