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Human suffering on the Libyan front line

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Summary of story from the Independent, April 4, 2011

While the world’s focus has been on the Libyan military campaign and the diplomatic manoeuvrings of the conflict, an acute humanitarian crisis is unfolding which is particularly impacting on women and children.

It is the frontline areas which are, inevitably, the worst affected. The residents of Sauhat (about 25kms from Ajdabiya) – many of them women and children – were forced to move after missiles flew over their homes and young men from the community were killed and injured.

“There is no water, no electricity, we have little food.” Malez Mohammed shook her head. “Many children are sick, we don’t know where to take them. A young woman had a baby in this tent, without any medical help.”

The villagers had moved as swiftly as they could with the sheep and camel that comprise their livelihood.

Yet their new “home”, in a parched landscape, offers little grazing or water. No fodder is available and the herds are being slaughtered to provide the occasional meals of meat to go with the diet of bread and a few vegetables.

The UN’s World Food Programme has started distributing aid, but almost all its foreign staff are stationed in Benghazi, due to the lack of safety away from the capital of the rebel government.

And whilst the opposition’s provisional government are keen to help, their own limited resources and stretch means that there is simply not enough to go around.

WVoN comment: As always, it seems that women and children are on the frontline of suffering within the Libyan civil war, even if they are not on the frontline of the fighting.

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