Press Conference by Emergency Relief Coordinator on Situation in Libya

 

The United Nations and its international humanitarian partner agencies were steadily ramping up efforts to assist civilians affected by violent clashes in Libya, the Organization’s Emergency Relief Coordinator said during a Headquarters press conference today, just hours before she headed to North Africa to assess the situation first-hand.

Valerie Amos, who is also the Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said that the humanitarian community was also responding to reports that armed, pro-Government forces at the Libyan border were preventing movement out of the country.

“As of yesterday, over 172,000 people have left Libya — mainly migrant workers returning to their homes,” she said, adding that most of those had crossed over the Tunisian and Egyptian borders.

Since those figures had been released, however, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) had issued troubling reports of “heavily armed pro-Government forces” manning the Libyan side of the border, and “our concern now is that the numbers leaving Libya dropped sharply yesterday”, she said.

Ms. Amos said that she would be leaving for Tunisia tonight to further assess the situation, and that satellite imagery would be used in the coming days to confirm reports of people massed at the border.  At the same time, she said, the scale-up of humanitarian aid by the United Nations and its partners would continue and a regional flash appeal for emergency funding would be launched on Monday.

A joint United Nations assessment mission led by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs had reached Benghazi, in the east of Libya, yesterday.  While humanitarian needs in that part of the country were “not major at present”, she said officials were concerned by reports that supply lines from the capital, Tripoli, had been cut — a move that would interfere with the transport of food, fuel and medicines.  On the Tunisian side of the border, a transit camp had been set up to receive those fleeing the violence, and would provide some basic food, shelter and sanitation.

Meanwhile, United Nations agencies were still working to gain access to the west of Libya, where the level of humanitarian needs remained unknown.  “I repeat the call made by the Secretary-General yesterday for immediate, unimpeded access by humanitarian workers into Libya,” she stressed, calling for countries to provide more airplanes and ships to assist with the movement of people out of the country.  She also thanked host families and communities in neighbouring countries, especially Tunisia and Egypt, for their support to those leaving Libya.

Responding to questions from correspondents about assistance to foreign nationals seeking to leave the country, she said that mass evacuations had already been made, in particular by neighbouring countries.  A range of other states had also come to Libya with boats or planes, assisting their nationals and those of other countries to flee, she said.  While large numbers of refugees fleeing to Europe and other regions nearby had not yet been seen, she said, it was still important that countries continue to “keep their borders open” to those seeking refuge as the crisis unfolded.

Ms. Amos also addressed the humanitarian conditions in Somalia — where there had been reports of violent clashes amid the ongoing drought — and Côte d’Ivoire, where the situation was “increasingly alarming”.  UNHCR and its partners had been scaling up their efforts in Liberia, where a growing number of refugees from Côte d’Ivoire were arriving daily.  A camp for some 15,000 people had already been set up there, she said, and more capacity was needed.

She noted that an appeal for $87 million had been launched to respond to the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire, but that to date only $15 million had been met.  She added that the original appeal would soon be updated to reflect the increasing challenges in that country.

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For information media • not an official record