Tensions are rising in eastern Libya and, as a result, medical needs are increasing. Fighting in the region has now expanded beyond the city of Benghazi, which has been the scene of armed confrontations for more than a year, to Derna, the stronghold of the Islamic State (IS) in the area, where clashes started three weeks ago.
This violence has strained the health care system and triggered population movements, including more than 2,000 families now seeking sanctuary in Benghazi.
A Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team has been based in Al-Bayda, in eastern Libya, for two months. In mid-June, it began providing support to hospitals. Benghazi has seven major hospitals, but only three are still functioning. MSF provided 100 surgical kits for treating wounded patients to Al-Jalah Hospital, one of those three. After the fighting, this hospital had treated many of the wounded and its supplies were exhausted. MSF also donated drugs to a psychiatric hospital in Benghazi and to the Al-Marj general hospital, located between Benghazi and Al-Bayda.
'Very dangerous'
“We had a lot of problems delivering all these drugs and medical supplies,” says Dr. Anne-Marie Pegg, a Canadian physician who serves as MSF’s head of mission in Libya. “It was a challenge to find an airplane that transports freight to Libya. And then road transport is very dangerous because of the insecurity in both the east and the west.”
More than four years after the fall of Gaddafi, Libya is divided into two camps, each with its own government. One is located in the west, in Tripoli, and the other in the east, in Tobruk. The country is also crisscrossed by many dividing lines, along which the Islamic State (IS) has risen in power. Armed confrontations have intensified recently between IS forces around Derna (their stronghold in the east) and other Islamic factions, as well as the army of the Tobruk government.
Pressure on the health system
To ensure that wounded patients in the Derna area can obtain treatment, the MSF team has worked to increase hospitalization and emergency treatment capacity at the Al-Qubbah health care centre, located between Derna and Al-Bayda and close to the front line. “The operating room is being rebuilt and a surgical team will be sent soon to work in this hospitalization unit,” Dr. Pegg says.
Fighting in the area has also driven displaced persons to take refuge in Al-Qubbah, where the population has recently risen from 60,000 to 100,000 people. Pressures are thus rising on the health care system, which was already weakened by the country’s division. In the east, hospitals and public clinics rely on the Ministry of Health of the Tobruk government, which was established just a year ago and lacks resources.
MSF has worked in Libya several times, first in 2011 and 2012. In Misrata, our teams treated wounded patients and provided mental health care. They also supported hospitals in Tripoli, Benghazi and other cities. In 2013, MSF helped people with both physical and mental healthcare problems related to the conflict, providing medical treatment and psychological support.
