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DPA
Tripoli
The United Nations renewed a call for Libya’s warring sides to agree on a humanitarian truce to combat the new coronavirus on Saturday, the first anniversary of the start of a battle to capture the capital Tripoli.
On April 4 last year, General Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), ordered his forces to seize Tripoli from the rival Government of National Accord (GNA) supported by the UN.
The fighting has resulted in at least 356 civilian deaths and injured 329 others, according to the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
“The humanitarian situation has deteriorated to levels never previously witnessed in Libya,” the mission said in a statement.
Around 149,000 people in and around Tripoli have been forced to flee their homes since the beginning of the offensive, UNSMIL added.
It is estimated that around 893,000 people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
The mission urged Libya’s warring parties and their foreign backers to heed an earlier call by UN chief Antonio Guterres for an immediate halt to the fighting.
“The COVID-19 pandemic, which is spreading in Libya, as it is around the world, recognizes neither national boundaries nor frontlines and clearly represents the greatest near-term threat to the welfare and well-being of the Libyan people,” UNSMIL said.
Health authorities in Libya have reported 16 virus infections including one death.
Fighting has raged in Libya in recent weeks between Haftar’s forces and GNA loyalists, despite calls from the UN and several countries for a truce to focus efforts on battling the virus.
Earlier Saturday, two people were injured after a shell hit a hospital in Tripoli, an official said.
A mortar shell struck a gate of the Tripoli University Hospital, injuring a woman and a security guard, Amin al-Hashimi, a media official at the GNA Health Ministry said in a press statement without further details.
So far, there has been no claim for the attack.
Libya has been in turmoil since the 2011 overthrow of dictator Moamer Gaddafi and has become a battleground for rival proxy forces, which has drawn in foreign powers.
The oil-rich country is currently divided between two administrations: the UN-recognized government in Tripoli and the other based in the eastern city of Tobruk and allied with Haftar.
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05/04/2020
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